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Silky shark

 
Silky Shark

 
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Silky shark
 
 
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The silky shark, Carcharhinus falciformis, is a large pelagic shark
Shark

Sharks are a type of fish with a full Cartilage skeleton and a highly Streamlines, streaklines and pathlinesd body. They respire with the use of five to seven gill slits....
 of tropical and warm temperate seas.

species
Species

In biology, a species is one of the basic units of biological classification and a taxonomic rank. A species is often defined as a group of organisms capable of interbreeding and producing fertile offspring....
 is found worldwide in tropical and warm temperate
Temperate

In geography, temperate or tepid latitudes of the globe lie between the tropics and the polar circles. The changes in these regions between summer and winter are generally mild, rather than extreme hot or cold....
 > seas. It is usually pelagic, but sometimes approaches the coast, especially at remote offshore islands. It is found to depths of up to .

shark has a large 'typical' shark body, slender with 'silky' smooth skin
Skin

The skin is the outer covering of the body, also known as the epidermis. It is the largest organ of the integumentary system made up of multiple layers of epithelial biological tissue, and guards the underlying muscles, bones, ligaments and organ s....
.






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Do all sharks have the same skin? do they all have placoid scales??








Encyclopedia


The silky shark, Carcharhinus falciformis, is a large pelagic shark
Shark

Sharks are a type of fish with a full Cartilage skeleton and a highly Streamlines, streaklines and pathlinesd body. They respire with the use of five to seven gill slits....
 of tropical and warm temperate seas.

Distribution

This species
Species

In biology, a species is one of the basic units of biological classification and a taxonomic rank. A species is often defined as a group of organisms capable of interbreeding and producing fertile offspring....
 is found worldwide in tropical and warm temperate
Temperate

In geography, temperate or tepid latitudes of the globe lie between the tropics and the polar circles. The changes in these regions between summer and winter are generally mild, rather than extreme hot or cold....
 > seas. It is usually pelagic, but sometimes approaches the coast, especially at remote offshore islands. It is found to depths of up to .

Appearance

Carcharhinus Falciformis
This shark has a large 'typical' shark body, slender with 'silky' smooth skin
Skin

The skin is the outer covering of the body, also known as the epidermis. It is the largest organ of the integumentary system made up of multiple layers of epithelial biological tissue, and guards the underlying muscles, bones, ligaments and organ s....
. It is brown-grey dorsal
Dorsum (biology)

In anatomy, the dorsum is the upper side of animals that typically run, fly, or swim in a horizontal position, and the back side of animals that walk upright....
ly and white below with no special markings. It can be distinguished from other sharks by the second dorsal fin, which has a very long free tip at the rear, about two and a half times the fin height. The first dorsal fin is also farther back than on any other carcharhiniform, beginning behind the pectoral fins.

The maximum size is , but the length is usually not more than .

Diet

The silky shark is a predator. It feeds mainly on inshore and pelagic bony fish
Fish

A fish is any marine biology vertebrate animal that is typically ectothermic , covered with scale , and equipped with two sets of paired fins and several unpaired fins....
es, but also eats squid
Squid

Squid are marine cephalopods of the order Teuthida, which comprises around 300 species. Like all other cephalopods, squid have a distinct head, Symmetry #Bilateral_symmetry, a mantle , and cephalopod arms....
 and pelagic crab
Crab

Crabs are Decapoda crustaceans of the infraorder Brachyura, which typically have a very short projecting "tail" , or where the reduced abdomen is entirely hidden under the thorax....
.

Behaviour

The silky shark is more active, yet less aggressive than the other two big pelagic sharks, the blue shark
Blue shark

The blue shark, Prionace glauca, is a carcharhinid shark which is found in the deep waters of the world's temperate and tropical oceans. They prefer cooler waters and are not found, for example, in the Yellow Sea or in the Red Sea....
 and oceanic whitetip. It may be more common close to shore than the blue and oceanic whitetip sharks, but it is still a pelagic shark, and quite rarely seen close to shore. The silky shark will most likely be found on reefs which have deep dropoffs.

Silky sharks are not generally dangerous to divers, but in the presence of speared fish or if approached directly they can become aggressive, and therefore should be considered a potentially dangerous shark.

Reproduction

These sharks are viviparous (young fed in utero by a placental sac), with a litter size varying from 2 to 14. They are approximately 80 cm long at birth. Sexual maturity is reached near a length of about for females and for males.

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