Does basking shark lay eggs?

Does basking shark lay eggs?

With a gestation period of 3 1/2 years, basking sharks have the longest gestation of any vertebrate. Females are ovoviviperous, which means that, although they lay eggs, these eggs hatch within their wombs and they give birth to live young.

Has anyone been killed by a basking shark?

Are basking sharks dangerous to humans? They do not bite their prey, so are extremely unlikely to attack a human. However their massive size means swimmers and sailors should not get too close. In 1937 three men drowned when a basking shark reportedly capsized their boat in Kilbrannan Sound off Kintyre, Scotland.

Could a basking shark swallow a human?

Theoretically, a basking shark could eat you. It’s jaw is enormous, measuring in at about one meter (approximately three feet) in width, lined with hundreds of tiny teeth. That’s wide enough to consume at least one human in his or her entirety.

Are whale sharks bigger than basking sharks?

Whale Sharks usually grow bigger than Basking Sharks. The average fully-grown Whale Shark measures around 30–33′ long, while Basking Sharks are generally in the 20–26′ range.

Do sharks have a uterus?

(Yes, sharks have two uteruses.) More often, however, they’d catch the moving embryos after the fact, when they’d check on a shark and find that the total count of shark embryos in one uterus had gone down, while the count in another uterus had risen by the same amount.

Where does a basking shark get its eggs from?

The terminology surrounding basking shark reproduction can be quite confusing but this should clarify it: The young hatch from eggs inside the uterus (this is called being oviparous) The developing embryos nourish themselves by eating eggs in the uterus (they are oophagous)

What happens when a female basking shark becomes pregnant?

When a female basking shark becomes pregnant, the shark pups inside her feed on other unfertilized eggs inside her womb, which is called oophagy. Oddly, the female’s right ovary is the only reproductive organ to function. No one knows precisely why.

What kind of food does a basking shark eat?

Basking sharks might use a combination of nutrition from oophagagy (eating eggs) AND trophonemata (feeding threads) to nourish their unborn, developing young.

What does it mean when a shark lays an egg?

Egg-Laying Sharks. This is called oviparity. When the eggs are laid, they are in a protective egg case (which sometimes washes up on the beach and is commonly called a “mermaid’s purse”). The egg case has tendrils that allows it to attach to a substrate such as corals, seaweed or the ocean bottom.