🤯 Did You Know (click to read)
Relative brain size in sharks often correlates with feeding strategy and activity level.
Compared to their enormous body size, basking sharks have relatively small brains, reflecting their slow-moving, filter-feeding lifestyle rather than active predation. Energy allocation favors bulk filtration capacity over complex hunting strategies.
💥 Impact (click to read)
In many apex predators, brain development supports rapid decision-making and coordinated pursuit. In contrast, a basking shark’s survival depends on tracking plankton density rather than chasing prey, reducing selective pressure for large cognitive centers.
The imbalance between massive body mass and modest brain size underscores how ecological role shapes anatomy. Evolution optimizes for efficiency, not spectacle, even when that efficiency supports one of the largest fish on Earth.
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