Shortfin mako shark
Isurus oxyrinchus
— Where the name comes from
Isurus is Greek for “equal tail”, from ísos, equal, and ourá, tail, from the nearly symmetrical caudal lobes; oxyrinchus, “sharp-snouted”. “Mako” comes from the Māori language of New Zealand, where it meant the shark and its teeth, worn as ornaments. It is the fastest of all sharks.
— Facts
- Group
- Fish · Actinopterygii · Chondrichthyes
- Order
- Mackerel sharks
- Habitat
- Open sea, temperate and tropical waters
- Range
- All warm and temperate oceans
- Size
- 2–3.2 m, up to 4 m
- Diet
- Carnivore — fast fish such as tuna and swordfish
- Lifespan
- 25–30 years
— Characteristics
- 01
It is the fastest shark: it reaches and passes 70 km/h in bursts.
- 02
It keeps its muscles warmer than the water, gaining power and explosiveness.
- 03
It leaps clear of the water in spectacular jumps, several metres high.
— What sets it apart
The mako is a “warm-blooded” fish, or nearly: like a few other sharks it has a network of vessels that recovers the heat its muscles produce and holds it in, keeping the body several degrees above the temperature of the sea. That gives it an explosive muscular power no cold-blooded fish can match, and makes it the sprinter of the oceans, able to run down tuna, among the swiftest fish there are. It hunts the fastest by being faster than all of them.
