During this year’s Shark Week, I came across an article published in Endangered Species Research that reported on warm-blooded basking sharks (Cetorhinus maximus). While the majority of fish and sharks are cold-blooded, researchers found that the core body temperature of these endangered basking sharks is 1-1.5 degrees celsius warmer than the water in which they swim. Because not all tissues are warm, they are ‘regionally endothermic’.
While it makes sense that fast swimming predatory mako and great white sharks are relatively warm-blooded, it was strange to learn that basking sharks share this characteristic as these sharks consume plankton. There is no need to swim fast when your diet consists of plankton.
These findings may help explain how these sharks are actually able to swim fast (~1 meter/second) and migrate long distances. They are also able to tolerate lower environmental temperatures than other species of sharks.
Source
HR Dolton, AL Jackson, R Deaville, J Hall, G Hall, G McManus, MW Perkins, RA Rolfe, EP Snelling, JDR Houghton, DW Sims, and NL Payne. Regionally endothermic traits in planktivorous basking sharks Cetorhinus maximus. Endangered Species Research, 51: 227, 2023.
Categories: Climate Change, Environment, Extreme Animals, Nature's Solutions, Ocean Life, Sharks
Tags: basking shark, endothermic, plankton, Trinity College Dublin, warm-blooded
Life Lines by Dr. Dolittle 