All Types of Sharks

Did you know that sharks are invertebrates, i.e., they are a type of fish but, they do not have bones? That's right, they do not have bones, they are cartilaginous fish, their skeleton is made of cartilage instead. Although, cartilage is not as hard as bones, it is a stiff fibrous tissue.

There are about 440 species of sharks in the world and classifying all of them is quite a task. These species are classified into a group of 30 families and further broken down to 8 categories namely, squatiniformes, pristiophoriformes, squaliformes, hexanchiformes, heterodontiformes, orectolobiformes, carcharhiniformes and lamniformes. The scientists classified all types of sharks into these different categories, based on a series of physical criteria.

ist of Different Types of Sharks

Given below is the list of sharks that are common in existence and most of them are well-known.

• Pacific Angel Shark: They are called angel sharks because of their wide fins that appear like wings. These sharks with a blunt snout are flat bodied, they are 5 feet long and they have a pale color with spots. These spots give a camouflaged effect and blends into the rocks and sands of the ocean bed. These sharks mostly survive on fish and sometimes sea cucumbers and squids.
• Basking Shark: It is a giant shark with the size of 33 feet and it weighs up to 3 tons. The color of this shark is either black, grayish-brown or sometimes bluish. These sharks can live up to 50 years and they survive on plankton.
• Blacktip Reef Shark: These sharks are easily identifiable because of the prominent black tips on their fins. They grow up to a length of 1.6 meters and survive on seabirds and sea snakes.
• Blue Shark: They are known to be graceful swimmers because of their pointed snout and long fins. They, of course, are blue in color, indigo to be more specific and normally the length of this shark is 12.5 feet. They live up to 20 years and mostly feed on squids.
• Bull Shark: Bull sharks are said to be aggressive in nature. Their length ranges between 7 to 11.5 feet and they are gray in color but, their belly is white. Their food includes fish, seabirds, mollusks, turtles and also dolphins are something that they sometimes feed on.
• Goblin Shark: Goblin sharks live deep down the sea and are pinkish-gray in color. Their length is about 3.8 meters and these sharks feed on squids and fish. Unlike other sharks, it has a long beak shaped snout.
• Great White Shark: Having appeared in movies such as Jaws and Shark Attack, great white sharks have gained a lot of popularity. Besides, these sharks are the most deadliest of the lot and have a life span of more than 30 years. Their food includes fish, seabirds and pinnipeds, sea lions, turtles, small whales, seals and many other sea animals.
• Great Hammerhead Shark: Hammerhead sharks grow up to a maximum of 20 feet and are gray in color with a yellowish-white belly. Their life span ranges from 20 to 30 years and the average weight of these sharks are around 500 kilograms. They feed on squids, octopuses and fish including other sharks and rays.
• Shortfin Mako Shark: Due to the ability of leaping out of the water and being exceptional swimmers, these sharks are also called game fish. They can grow up to 12 feet and weigh up to 800 kilograms. They feed on bonito, tuna, squids, other sharks and marine mammals.
• Nurse Shark: Nurse sharks can grow up to 4.3 meters in length and can be up to 150 kilograms in weight. They are said to be nocturnal hunters and tend to dwell at the bottom of the sea. The food includes fish, lobsters, squids, octopuses, shrimp and sea urchins.
• Sand Tiger Shark: These sharks have an elongated tail and have large dorsal fins. Their length could go up to 11 feet and they weigh between 90 to 160 kilograms.
• Spiny Dogfish Shark: These sharks with pointed snout can incredibly live up to 25 to 100 years and the length of which is 5.9 feet.
• Pelagic Thresher Shark: Thresher sharks are easily identifiable because of their extra long upper lobes of the caudal/ tail fins. They typically grow up to a length of 10 feet and are mostly grayish in color.
• Tiger Shark: A tiger shark is so-called because of the tiger like stripes on it. It can grow as long as 10 feet and can weigh up to 1100 kilograms.
• Whale Shark: Whale sharks are known as 'gentle giants' because of its non aggressive nature and yet it is a giant like figure with the weight of 10 tons and the potential to grow as long as 15 meters.
• Whitetip Reef Shark: These sharks are small and have a broad flattened head and the snout of these sharks are also well-rounded and has two dorsal fins. Length of these sharks could go up to 5.25 feet and they mostly weigh under 20.4 kilograms.
• Cobblers Wobbegong Shark: These sharks are comparatively smaller in size with a length of around 3 feet. They are pale brown in color and have many black spots spread across the body and fins.
• Zebra Shark: Zebra sharks belong to the species of carpet sharks and one of the interesting facts about zebra sharks is that these sharks are also nocturnal. They feed on sea snakes, snails, bony fish, crabs, shrimp and molluscs.
• Bahamas Sawshark: These types are brown in color and can attain a length of 5.6 feet. Their food includes bony fish, shrimp, crustaceans and squids.
• Blacknose Shark: These sharks can live up to 16 years and grow up to a length of 4.6 feet. The diet of these sharks include small fish, anchovies, croakers, octopus. They have a dark spot on their snout that usually fades away with age.

Other Types

The former list consisted of some of the popular sharks. Given below is a list of a few other sharks which exist in different oceans around the world.

• Blacktail Reef Shark
• Blacktip Shark
• Blind Shark
• Bonnethead Shark
• Bluntnose Sixgill Shark
• Broadnose Sevengill Shark
• Brownbanded Bamboo Shark
• California Hornshark
• Caribbean Sharpnose shark
• Caribbean Reef Shark
• Colcloughs Shark
• Cookie Cutter Shark
• Common Sawshark
• Coral Catshark
• Draughtsboard Shark
• Crested Bullhead Shark
• Dusky Shark
• Freycinets Epaulet Shark
• Epaulet Shark
• Frilled Shark
• Galapagos Shark
• Galapagos Bullhead Shark
• Ganges Shark
• Golden Hammerhead Shark
• Graceful Shark
• Gray Reef Shark
• Greenland Shark
• Gummy Shark
• Gulf Catshark
• Horn Shark
• Leopard Shark
• Lemon Shark
• Longnose Velvet Dogfish
• Ornate Wobbegong
• Oceanic Whitetip Shark
• Megamouth
• Milk Shark
• Mexican Bullhead
• Necklace Carpet Shark
• Pigeye Shark
• Porbeagle Shark
• Piked Dogfish
• Portuguese Dogfish
• Prickly Dogfish
• Port Jackson Shark
• Rusty Carpet Shark
• Salmon Shark
• Sailfin Roughshark
• Sandbar Shark
• Scalloped Hammerhead Shark
• Sharpnose Sevengill Shark
• Seal Shark
• Shortnose Spurdog Shark
• Sicklefin Lemon Shark
• Shortspine Spurdog Shark
• Silky Shark
• Smooth Hammerhead Shark
• Silvertip Shark
• Smalltooth Sand tiger Shark
• Southern Lantern Shark
• Soupfin Shark
• Speckled Epaulet
• Spiny Dogfish Shark
• Spinner Shark
• Spotted Wobbegong
• Striped Cat Shark
• Starry Smooth Hound Shark
• Swell Shark
• Tasmanian Numbfish
• Tawny Nurse Shark
• Tasseled Wobbegong
• Wards Wobbegong
• Whitespotted Bamboo Shark
• Winghead Shark

One of the sharks that is not listed above is the Megalodon sharks as they are one of the extinct species that existed in prehistoric times. What is ironic is some of these sharks, better known to terrorize humans, such as great white sharks and tiger sharks are now under the list of endangered sharks and if we don't want to categorize them under extinct animals, then we must do something. The first obvious and wise thing to avoid such situation would be, to stop shark fishing!