🦈
Sharks
Selachimorpha
Fish
average across the group
vs
🦈
Whale shark
Rhincodon typus
Sharks & rays · Endangered
4 clips name both of them
18,281 views between them.
Whale shark outweighs Sharks 3.5× — 18,700 kg against 5,366 kg.
Tale of the tape
Body mass
5,366 kg
🦈 Sharks · group average
18,700 kg
🦈 Whale shark · AnAge
Body length
6.28 m
🦈 Sharks · group average
10 m
🦈 Whale shark · FishBase
Maximum lifespan
46 yr
🦈 Sharks · group average
54 yr
🦈 Whale shark · AnAge
Bars are sized against the larger of the two figures.
Animals caught on camera
Real footage of the animals on this site — hunting, fighting, and getting on with it.
Shared ancestry
The closest group they share is Elasmobranchii (subclass), home to 1,595 species.
We know what their shared ancestor was, but not when it lived — no dated family tree spans both of them yet.