Category: Fish
The basking shark is the second largest living fish after the whale shark and can be found in all the world’s temperate oceans. Like the whale shark and mega-mouth shark, they feed on plankton and are a slow-moving filter feeder. While they can appear threatening due to their size and gaping mouth, they are docile and pose no threat to humans. Satellite tracking shows that they move thousands of kilometers in the winter in search of plankton blooms. They are social animals that form sex-segregated schools that, while typically small, may reach around 100 individuals.
ABC. It’s easy as Protandry
The largest, most aggressive female anemonefish rules the roost - she is the dominant member of the social group, and with one breeding male, the only one who reproduces. In anemonefish society, everybody knows where they stand in the hierarchy! So when she leaves the group, everybody moves up one spot - including the largest, most aggressive male, who undergoes a sex change to become the leader (and breeding female) of the group. While undergoing a sex change might sound drastic to humans, it is actually not all that uncommon in other species. Many do it, either naturally or due to environmental factors: fish, invertebrates, amphibians, some reptiles, even the occasional chicken!
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