🦈Great hammerhead
The great hammerhead is the largest species of hammerhead shark, belonging to the family Sphyrnidae, attaining an average length of 4.6 m (15 ft) and reaching a maximum length of 6.2 m (20 ft). It is found around the globe in all the warmer parts of the oceans. The great hammerhead can be distinguished from other hammerheads by the shape of its "hammer", which is wide with an almost straight front margin, its tall, sickle-shaped first dorsal fin, and its strongly falcated pelvic fins. A solitary, strong-swimming apex predator, the great hammerhead feeds on a wide variety of prey ranging from crustaceans and cephalopods, to bony fish, to smaller sharks. Observations of this species in the wild suggest that the cephalofoil functions to immobilize stingrays, a favored prey. This species has a viviparous mode of reproduction, bearing litters of up to 2-49 pups every two years.
Text: Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.
IUCN Red List assessment, 2019.
- Body mass
- 450 kg
- Body length
- 3.7 m
- Shoulder height
- not recorded
- Top speed
- not recorded
- Bite force
- not recorded
- Maximum lifespan
- 30 years
Everything we know about the Great hammerhead
Typical adult figures. Where a value is an estimate rather than a measurement, it says so.
Body mass450 kgmaximum recordedFishBaseDetails ↓Hide ↑
Source: FishBase · v25.04 · CC BY-NC 4.0
Body length3.7 mrecord 6.1 m · FishBasetypical adultFishBaseDetails ↓Hide ↑
Record: largest individual on record
Source: FishBase · v25.04 · CC BY-NC 4.0
Maximum lifespan30 yearsmaximum recordedFishBaseDetails ↓Hide ↑
Source: FishBase · v25.04 · CC BY-NC 4.0
Trophic level4.32FishBaseDetails ↓Hide ↑
Source: FishBase · v25.04, estimate table · CC BY-NC 4.0
DietcarnivoreaverageDetails ↓Hide ↑
From trophic level 4.32 (FishBase): <2.2 herbivore, 2.2–2.8 omnivore, >2.8 carnivore.
Danger to humansotherFishBaseDetails ↓Hide ↑
Source: FishBase · v25.04 · CC BY-NC 4.0
Volume l450 LaverageDetails ↓Hide ↑
Body mass at ~1.0 kg/L, the density of vertebrate tissue.
average = a mean across sexes or species in a group.
Not recorded for Great hammerhead yet: shoulder height, top speed, bite force.
Family tree
- kingdomAnimalia
- ›phylumChordata
- ›classElasmobranchii
- ›orderCarcharhiniformes
- ›familySphyrnidae
- ›genusSphyrna
- ›speciesSphyrna mokarran
- superclassGnathostomata
- classSharks & rays · Chondrichthyes
- subclassElasmobranchii
- genusSphyrna
All 8 branches ↓Fewer branches ↑
- kingdomMetazoa
- phylumChordata
- subphylumCraniata
- subphylumVertebrata
- superclassGnathostomata
- classSharks & rays · Chondrichthyes
- subclassElasmobranchii
- genusSphyrna
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