Basking Sharks Possess The Largest Mouth Relative To Body Width Among Many Sharks

Its head becomes a moving cavern when feeding.

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The basking shark’s mouth can open wide enough to reveal multiple rows of tiny teeth.

When fully opened, the basking shark’s mouth forms an enormous gape relative to head width, allowing massive intake of seawater. This adaptation maximizes plankton capture during slow cruising.

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The feeding aperture transforms the shark’s profile, expanding its head into a broad filtration tunnel. Few fish display such dramatic morphological change between resting and feeding states.

This extreme mouth expansion emphasizes how structure evolves around dietary strategy. In basking sharks, anatomical exaggeration serves efficiency rather than aggression.

Source

Encyclopaedia Britannica

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