Sharks, Rays And Chimaeras

This group gathers Fish subcategory members belonging to the cartilaginous fishes, class Chondrichthyes, whose skeleton is built of cartilage rather than bone, setting them apart from every other fish in this subcategory. It spans the sharks, from the enormous filter-feeding whale shark and basking shark to active hunters such as the great white, tiger and bull sharks and the hammerheads, the sawsharks and their superficially similar but unrelated sawfish cousins among the rays, the stingrays, eagle rays and the giant oceanic manta ray, and the chimaeras, an ancient, deep-sea-dwelling cartilaginous lineage that split from the sharks and rays hundreds of millions of years ago. Nearly every member reproduces by internal fertilization, unusual among fish, and several groups within it, the hammerheads and the great white among them, are apex predators found in every ocean.