Cetorhinus maximus

The basking shark is the second-largest living shark and fish, after the whale shark. It is one of three plankton-eating shark species, along with the whale shark and megamouth shark. Typically, basking sharks reach 7.9 m (26 ft) in length, but large individuals have been known to grow more than 10 m (33 ft) long. It is usually greyish-brown, with mottled skin, with the inside of the mouth being white in colour. The caudal fin has a strong lateral keel and a crescent shape. Other common names include bone shark, elephant shark, sailfish, and sunfish.

Cetorhinus maximus

Greg Skomal / NOAA Fisheries Service · Public Domain · via Wikipedia/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.

On record

Recorded, not inferred
Also called
basking sharkPBDB
Sits inside
CetorhinusPBDB
Diet
suspension feeder, carnivorePBDB, for Cetorhinidae
Life habit
nektonicPBDB, for Cetorhinidae
Motility
fast-movingPBDB, for Cetorhinidae

Time the record covers

At least 15 million years on record.

The record covers at least 15.98 Mya to 129 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 23.04 Mya to 11.7 ka.

Oligocene — about 0 of 31 occurrencesMiocene — about 15 of 31 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 11 of 31 occurrencesPliocenePleistocene — about 5 of 31 occurrencesPleistocene24–23 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences23–22 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences22–21 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences21–20 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences20–20 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences20–19 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences19–18 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences18–17 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences17–16 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences16–16 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences16–15 Mya — about 1 occurrence15–14 Mya — about 1 occurrence14–13 Mya — about 1 occurrence13–13 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences13–12 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences12–11 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences11–10 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences10–9.4 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences9.4–8.6 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences8.6–7.8 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences7.8–7.1 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences7.1–6.3 Mya — about 1 occurrence6.3–5.5 Mya — about 1 occurrence5.5–4.7 Mya — about 3 occurrences4.7–3.9 Mya — about 3 occurrences3.9–3.1 Mya — about 3 occurrences3.1–2.4 Mya — about 2 occurrences2.4–1.6 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences1.6–785 ka Mya — about 1 occurrence785 ka–0 Mya — about 3 occurrences15.98 Mya129 ka23.5 Mya0 Mya

31 occurrences of Cetorhinus maximus on record, most of them in the Miocene. The Paleobiology Database records this as a living group. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.

When

31 occurrences

These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.

Found in

15 formations

Purisima — 37.29°N, 122.41°WBerchem — 51.19°N, 4.42°EPalos Verdes Sand — 33.60°N, 117.88°WPalos Verdes Sand — 33.75°N, 118.29°WBreda — 52.15°N, 6.61°EBreda — 51.47°N, 5.80°EOosterhout — 51.70°N, 5.73°EGram — 55.28°N, 9.00°EMaenami — 37.21°N, 137.07°EHrušky — 48.81°N, 16.63°EWilson Grove — 38.34°N, 122.84°WAstoria — 43.36°N, 124.31°WBahía Inglesa — 26.22°S, 70.72°WArgille Azzurre — 43.31°N, 11.49°ENakazato — 35.43°N, 139.58°EKattendijk — 51.26°N, 4.27°ELillo — 51.25°N, 4.41°E

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Cetorhinus maximus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 6 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Cetorhinus maximus and its relatives

Miocene

Where Cetorhinus maximus and its relatives were recorded in the Miocene.

Found in the same rock

924 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 30 sites for Cetorhinus maximus, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too. The 24 sharing the most are listed.

This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.

Entered from

22 references

Each of the 31 occurrences read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. 10 further references are not listed. Entries link to doi.org where the Paleobiology Database holds an identifier, and to its own record where it does not. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content1

Picture of Cetorhinus maximus

Credit
Greg Skomal / NOAA Fisheries Service
Licence
Public Domain
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Cetorhinus maximus was found in Sketchfab.

Smithsonian Open Access and MorphoSource were not reached for this taxon, so this list is what the others held rather than everything there is.

The description on this site

Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0

This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.

Keep going

What may have been alongside itCetorhinus through timeFormations of the MioceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Gunner 1765)