Bluntnose sixgill shark
Hexanchus griseus
Size, compared with you
You: 1.7 m. Bluntnose sixgill shark: 5.5 m.
Bigger than a car. Grows up to about 5.5 m.
The bluntnose sixgill is a huge, slow deep-water shark with six gill slits on each side instead of the usual five. It lives in tropical and temperate seas around the world, mostly far below the surface.
The weird bit
Sixgills fitted with tags in one study swam up to about 300 metres at night and went down to 600 to 700 metres around noon, a daily up-and-down trip to look for food.
Quick facts
- Where it lives
- Deep sea, Open ocean0 to 2,500 m down
- What it eats
- Fish, squid, crabs, rays, seals, smaller sharks and dead animals
- How worried are we?
- Close to trouble (Near Threatened)Assessed in 2019 by the IUCN Red List.