Why is the shark named as Basking Sharks?”
This shark is called the basking shark because it is most often observed when feeding at the surface and appears to be basking. ————— The basking shark, Cetorhinus maximus, is the second largest living shark, after the whale shark. It is a cosmopolitan species — it is found in all the world’s temperate oceans. It is a slow moving and generally harmless filter feeder. Taxonomy This shark is called the basking shark because it is most often observed when feeding at the surface and appears to be basking. It is the only member of the family Cetorhinidae. It was first described and named Cetorhinus maximus by Gunnerus in 1765 from a specimen found in Norway. The genus name Cetorhinus comes from the Greek, ketos which means marine monster or whale and rhinos meaning nose, the species name maximus is from Latin and means “greatest”. It was later described as Squalus isodus by Macri in 1819, Squalus elephas by Lesueur in 1822, Squalus rashleighanus by Couch in 1838, Squalus cetaceus
BASKING SHARK Cetorhinus maximus The basking shark (Cetorhinus maximus) is a huge filter feeding shark which grows to be up to about 33 feet (10 m) long. It is the second-largest shark (after the whale shark). The basking shark is also called the sunfish, the bone shark, the elephant shark, the sailfish shark, and the big mouth shark. GENERAL DESCRIPTION This huge, bulky, filter-feeder is grayish brown to black to bluish on the upper surface and off-white or darker on its belly. It has a huge mouth which it uses to collect tiny food that floats in the water. A sluggish swimmer with huge gills and dark, bristle-like gill rakers, it filters its food from the water. The snout is short and conical. Female basking sharks are up to 33 feet (10 m) long; males are up to 30 feet (9 m) long. This enormous shark weighs up to 4 tons. It is the second largest fish in the world; the whale shark is the largest. Basking sharks have hundreds of teeth (each having a single cusp, curving backwards) but t
