Review and images by JimoAi; edited by bmathison1972
“A shark!” a couple exclaimed as a bowmouth guitarfish (Rhina ancylostoma) swims past the aquarium viewing panel. It swished its shark like tail from side to side but has a flattened head of a ray, making it look like a hybrid of a shark and a ray.
The sharks of the genus Alopias, within the family Alopiidae, are among the oddest and most recognizable sharks. Commonly known as the thresher sharks there are 3 extant species: the pelagic, common, and bigeye thresher. Their exceptionally long tail has long been the stuff of myth and speculation.
Review and images by JimoAi; edited by bmathison1972
In the warm waters around the Galapagos Islands, a giant oceanic manta ray (Mobula birostris) swoops by, causing the nearby fish to flee due to the large size of the ray. She opens her large mouth to allow zooplankton to be collected and in turn, her gill rakers filter them, allowing seawater to be exhaled.
Review and images by JimoAi; edited by bmathison1972
Sharks are master hunters. They have inhabited the world’s oceans since the Silurian period and are still standing strong today, even though their population is dwindling due to human greed. They have a basic body plan of a streamlined body, having cartilage rather than bone for their skeletal structure, external gill slits on either sides of the head, and pectoral fins that are not fused to the head.
Sharks are, generally speaking, the living embodiment of efficiency and elegance. Most of this is owed to the sleek, aerodynamic body plan possessed by the majority of shark species, but one shark takes these classic shark attributes to the next level. The blue shark (Prionace glauca) has refined the efficiency and elegance of sharks like no other, with its long, trim, lithe body.
Review and images by JimoAi; edited by bmathison1972
In the warm seas of Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, a small part of the reef got dark as it is obscured by a diamond-shaped shadow, the entity which casted the shadow flaps her wing-like pectoral fins to propel herself through the water as she opens her mouth to feed on krill and zooplankton.
Review and images by JimoAi; edited by bmathison1972
Out of all the shark species, the most distinguishable group is probably the ones from the family Sphyrnidae, while all but the winghead shark of the genus Eusphyra are placed under the genus Sphyra, better known as the hammerhead sharks.
Review and images by callmejoe3; edited by bmathison1972
The blog will now take its first look into the epaulette shark species. Epaulette sharks belong to the genus Hemiscyllium, composed of nine formally described species, with one having yet to be described. This genus belongs to the Orectolobiformes order of sharks, commonly described as ‘’carpet sharks’’, which also includes nurse and whale sharks.
Review and images by JimoAi; edited by bmathison1972
The great white shark (Carcharodon carcharias) is probably the most famous fish on this planet. It has gained a fearsome reputation thanks to movies like Jaws, which portrays these beautiful animals as nothing more that blood-thirsty killers driven by the instinct to kill.
Review and images by JimoAi; edited by bmathison1972
When it comes to dangerous sharks to humans, most people will always think about the great white, the tiger, or the bull shark. However, there is a runner up for the most dangerous shark that not many people have heard of, and it’s the oceanic whitetip shark (Carcharhinus longimanus).
Review and images by callmejoe3; edited by bmathison1972
Among the various impressive macropredators in the ocean, the tiger shark (Galeocerdo cuvier), is among the most powerful and strangest. The tiger shark belongs to the Carcharhinidae family, often referred to as the “requiem sharks”. The Galeocerdo genus was once diverse, but the tiger shark remains the only extant species within this clade.
Review and images by JimoAi; edited by bmathison1972
When it comes to chondrichthyes, the sharks always come up at the top of the popularity lists. In fact, whenever a toy company makes a fish figure, it’s always almost going to be a shark, usually a great white shark. Their cousins, the rays and chimaeras, are not so lucky in terms of treatment, and the luckiest non-shark chondrichthian to receive figure treatment is the largest of the rays and largest fish that isn’t a shark alive today, the manta ray.
In my last review I touched on the diversity of the hammerhead family Sphyrnidae while covering a toy representative of the family’s largest member, the great hammerhead (Sphyrna mokarran). Today we’re covering another member of that family, but one that is quite different from the great hammerhead and from what we think of when we think of hammerheads in general.
Although there are a plethora of toy hammerhead sharks out there very few of them identify the toy as anything more specific than a hammerhead. Most people probably don’t even realize that hammerhead is not a specific species of shark but rather an entire family of sharks (Sphyrnidae) that includes 9 distinct species.
Review and images by Suspsy; edited by bmathison1972
Of all the aquariums in North America, perhaps none are as impressive as the biggest one of all: the Georgia Aquarium in downtown Atlanta. It houses a vast number and variety of both freshwater and saltwater denizens, including alligators, otters, puffins, penguins, sea lions, dolphins, beluga whales, and most notable of all, whale sharks (Rhincodon typus).
