There are two ways of looking at this question. First what is the longest fish that has ever lived and the second being what is the longest extant, i.e. currently living, fish. I will answer both of these questions. The interesting thing about most of these giant fish is that they feed on the smallest of ocean dwellers, plankton.
Longest Extant Bony Fish. - Regalecus glesne
The longest extant bony fish is my favorite fish, the Oarfish. The oarfish is a deep sea fish that lives at the depths of 600 feet (200m) in the Atlantic Ocean and Mediterranean Sea.(Though there have been seen in the Pacific Ocean) These fish are so long and strange looking that they are the sources of quite a few of the world's sea serpent myths. These long, slender, and serpentine fish can grow to 50 feet long (15 m) ad weigh over 600 lbs (272 kg).Largest Extant Cartilaginous Fish - Rhincodon typus
Not to be alone, currently the record of largest extant fish bounces back and forth between the Oarfish and the Whale Shark. As larger and larger specimens of both of these species are recorded it seems that they may have a tie for the largest fish in the sea. The largest whale shark to date has been 41.5 feet long and 2.35 tons. These giants live in tropical waters where they filter feed on plankton.Largest fish to ever live - Leedsichthys
This extinct fish may have grown larger than the oarfish. Their length was at least 54 feet and may have grown to be even larger. The largest specimen to date has been 72 feet. These bony fish ate plankton that they filtered from the water much like modern day baleen whales, such as the humpback and right whale. Leedsichthys lived about 150 million years ago, in the early Jurassic Period when dinosaurs were just showing up on the planet.
More information:
More about the Oarfish
Giants of the Sea
No comments:
Post a Comment