🤯 Did You Know (click to read)
Unlike bony fish, sharks lack swim bladders and rely on liver oils and body composition for buoyancy control.
The combination of a cartilage skeleton and oil-rich liver lowers overall body density, allowing megamouth sharks to maintain near-neutral buoyancy. This reduces the need for constant swimming to stay suspended.
💥 Impact (click to read)
For a five-meter fish, hovering without intense muscular effort conserves enormous amounts of energy. Instead of fighting gravity continuously, it floats within the water column like a massive, living airship.
This buoyancy optimization supports a feeding strategy dependent on slow cruising through plankton layers, reinforcing how internal chemistry can substitute for speed in sustaining deep-sea gigantism.
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