Which is the largest species of shark?

The whale shark is the largest shark and the largest fish of any kind, growing past twelve metres, and like the biggest whales it lives on some of the smallest food. It feeds by filtering, either swimming forwards with its mouth open or hanging vertically and sucking in water, then straining plankton, small fish and eggs through pads inside the gills before the water passes out. Its teeth are tiny and play no part in feeding at all. Filter feeding is what makes such a size affordable: plankton is abundant and requires no chase, so growth is limited by how much water can be processed rather than by the difficulty of catching anything. Whale sharks are slow, warm-water animals, marked with a distinctive pattern of pale spots and lines that is unique to each individual, so researchers photograph flanks to identify and track them. They are entirely harmless to swimmers.

Sharks have skeletons of cartilage rather than bone, which is lighter and helps them stay buoyant.