What is your favourite shark?
I've been working on an ocean life repository website for work, and I found myself randomly rambling about sharks because they've always been such a fascinating example to me of how evolution can keep a very recognizable blueprint while splitting into a ridiculous range of lifestyles.
A whale shark, a thresher shark, an angelshark, a tiger shark, a goblin shark, and a reef shark all still read instantly as "shark", and yet they're doing such different things that it almost feels wrong. Filter-feeding giants, ambush predators, open-water hunters, deep-sea weirdos, tail-whip specialists. All while still sticking to this unmistakable shark... ness?
I've been trying to pin down what I even mean by that "blueprint". Not just body shape exactly, but some deeper structural identity that survives a lot of diversification. Other groups feel a bit like this too. Felines, canines, birds… they can branch into very different niches, sizes, and behaviors while still feeling strongly constrained by a common template. A tiger, a lynx, and a house cat are all very clearly "cat". Wolves, foxes, and chihuahuas are very clearly "dog". Canaries, hawks, parrots, and hummingbirds are all still "bird".
It fascinates me how common this is in evolution: nature finding one robust structure and then radiating outward in very different directions without losing the core design. Not the most morphologically extreme variation possible, maybe, but variation under a very conserved plan.
Sharks just feel like one of the wildest examples of that.
So: what's everyone's favourite shark, and why?
Mine is probably either the lemon shark or the thresher shark because of how smart they are. Lemon sharks are fascinating for their social behavior and learning, then threshers are incredible both for that absurd tail and for feeling like such a weirdly specialized, clever branch of the shark blueprint.
Uhh does the Blåhaj plushie I cuddle every night count?
Duh, emotional support sharks are still sharks.
There was a cartoon when I was a kid called Street Sharks that was like bipedal sharks wearing sunglasses and cutoff t-shirts and being badasses. Because of this show (and their ridiculous shape) the Hammerhead shark has always been my favorite.
STREET SHARKS! Wow i haven’t thought about this show in so long. i loved that show as a kid
Hammerhead has always been my favorite as well, and I wouldn't be surprised if Street Sharks was part of the reason why. But also their heads are just ridiculously shaped. Easily one of the most unique head shapes in the animal kingdom (it's like them, elephants, and hippos)
I think I was born a bit too late to have caught them on TV. But I can see it, hammerheads are cool! We get them on our shores pretty often, they're even bigger in real life than what they look like in the cartoon...
Greenland Shark. It's suspected that they may be functionally immortal but no one is sure.
(per Wikipedia, emphasis mine)
Holy crap ... may just be my new favorite shark now, too.
I really like animals that lay eggs internally and then hatch them. Idk why. Ovoviviparous is just a great word.
That word is just super fun to say. Phonetically enjoyable.
I love whale sharks. I actually have one of those animal tracker bracelets that donates to the Georgia Aquarium's work studying, caring for and rehabbing them. Plover is my whale shark and they're hanging out in the South Atlantic somewhere. Watching videos of the one remaining at the Georgia Aquarium is a happy place for me.
Sharks have always been cool though
The Georgia Aquarium is incredible. The fully transparent tunnel where you go through their big Ocean Voyager tank is legitimately mind-blowing.
I really want to be able to visit!
Hammerhead! They're just so weird.
My fav thing about hammerhead sharks is how they like to swim in large groups, whenever I see pics its never just one hammerhead shark its hundreds of big weirdos swimmin about
My grandpa has a good story about being out somewhere in the bahamas (I think?) on a jet ski back in the 90s. He ends up somehow falling off the jet ski, and while swimming back to it, he looks down through the clear water and sees hundreds of hammerheads swimming below. As someone with Thalassophobia, this is one of my worst nightmares. Still love those goofy looking guys, though.
Oh that’s wild!! I would love to experience that
The blacktip shark! Objectively it's kind of a median, unremarkable shark but when I was a kid they had a tank full of a bunch of adults and juveniles at my hometown zoo and I would just sit there back to the moon jellyfish staring at them for hours until my family got finished with the lions or meerkats or seals and came to find me.
It's cool how they can leap too, kinda like dolphins. I think they do it to get rid of parasites
Tasselled wobbegongs! They look ridiculous in the best kind of way and their ambush feeding strat is fun
Nurse shark because I had a toy rubber nurse shark growing up and I loved him so much the paint had worn off from use
Cookiecutter sharks are the weirdest shark. They're very small and have round bites that they gouge out of their prey, similar to cutting cookie dough.
For sone silly reason I really like the normal very basic great white shark.
The biggest reason why I like him so much is because of my obsession with the Blåhaj.
Also one cool thing I know is when the babies are born they are called pups and that is just the cutest thing I've ever heard. (Also they are like 1.2-1.5m in length when they are babies so they are huge already which I kinda don't understand how they get born in that size.
But other than that I virtually know nothing about them.
Probably still my favorite, too.
I am fan of many sharks, but probably rank tiger sharks the highest because they are just such a sharky shark to me. They fit the stereotype of big lurking underwater predator so well, plus they can have cool stripes.
If it's entirely my call, I would have to go with Marvel's own Jeff the Land Shark. He gets into all sorts of fun and adventures that are appropriate for all ages, and he's headlining the last reason to stick around with Marvel's Infinity Comics line. Way better than that Baby Shark, imo.
https://www.marvel.com/infinitycomics#sets-7
Megalodon. Bigger
iswas better!I like a hammerhead shark — but a great white will always be the coolest.
Early in my career this cubical neighbour had two little toys in her desk — a great white and a blue whale. For weeks everybody would debate who would win in a fight. To settle it, I called the kind folks at the aquarium, left a voicemail with my question… they went through the same cycle of weeks debating it until finally settling in the shark winning because it’s more agile and could essentially chomp the whale alive from the back.
Anyway, hammerheads are super cool but look ridiculous.
I used to snorkel a lot in San Diego around La Jolla. There are a lot of smaller sharks that hang out on the sea floor that are fun to watch, from nurse to leopard, and my favorite, the catshark, as its eggs are mermaid's purses, and if you get lucky, you can find one where you can see the little embryo swimming around inside! Very cool.
The obvious answer here is the thrasher shark. Using their long tail to whip and stun prey is so cool!