They're just so beautiful :) One of my favorite things from being an aquarist intern was feeding a trio of them! They are target trained, and they inhale big slabs of fish out of the tongs you hold out for them with their teeny mouths. Big dorks.
I also think it's fascinating that they are thought to be the closest relatives to whale sharks!
You can see a resemblance between these two pictures when you check out their double dorsal fins, sloping back, and pronounced longitudinal ridges!
They are also just the sweetest babies - and in captivity, these sharks often perform parthenogenesis, which is when females basically pup their own clones without the need for a male!
While most fish cannot regulate their body temperature (known as being ectothermic), basking sharks were recently discovered to be able to (known as being endothermic) which was previously thought to be exclusive to apex predators such as the basking shark's relatives: the mako and great white shark.
kirbyssharkfacts i am feeling down. will you give me a kirbys shark facts?
sorry to hear you're feeling down anon, but i hope this fact will help cheer you up!
did you know some sharks can glow in the dark? bioluminescence has been documented in multiple shark species: the kitefin shark, blackbelly lanternshark, and southern lanternshark.
the exact purpose of this bioluminescence is unknown, but scientists have made several hypotheses. it’s possible that the sharks use this to communicate with each other, to disguise themselves when hunting prey or evading predators, or to illuminate the ocean floor when searching for food.
a research paper on this subject was published in the frontiers in marine science journal in 2021, which you can find here if you're interested!