Do Sharks are Mammals?

Question

I want to know that are sharks mammals or fishes

Answer 1

No , sharks are not Mammals.

Sharks belong to a class in animal classification called 'Pisces' ( It includes all the fishes in the world.)

Mammals are much highly evolved than fishes and are put in a class 'Mammalia'. This is because the mothers or the females produce milk to nourish their young ones.

All such animals where the young ones are fed on the mother's milk in their infancy are called mammals. For this reason Whale is a mammal, even though it is found in the seas and looks very much like a fish. A big fish at that!

Answer 2

For the most part, you have got your question answered, but unfortunately some of the answers introduced further confusion, and so I thought I'd throw in a few points.

First off, no, sharks are not mammals. But are they fish? Well, from the perspective of biologists, "fish" is not what we call a monophyletic group, and therefore simply doesn't make much sense as a taxonomic category. Mammals, for example, all share certain characteristics and all go back tot he same shared ancestral origin. All sharks are members of a taxon (or group) called the elasmobranchii, which include the sharks, skates, and rays (together with the chimaeras, elasmobranch then form the Chondrichthyes). Again, all these subgroups share certain characteristics and the same origin. Fish on the other hand, do not. We subsume under the category all that lives in the water, has fins, uses gills and is somewhat torpedo shaped. In short, we call all that fish which you can order under the same name in a restaurant... But if you compare a shark for example to a goldfish, you will find that the differences between the two are far greater than say between a mouse and yourself.

Still, ichthyologists (fish biologists) speak nonetheless of fish or fishes (when you discuss more than one species), an historically conditioned phenomenon that must not confuse you about the problematic category "fish" as such.

Sharks are indeed a very ancient group, even though all the recent sharks have certainly evolved from their ancestors from the upper Devonian some 350 to 400 million years ago. They are, for example, the first vertebrate group that evolved true jaws. But, does that make them "primitive"? The problem with using an attribute like primitive is that it is contextual insuating something of lesser complexity and possibly value. A virus then, given you accept it as a true lifeform, would have to be considered primitive, regardless of how successful it affects the lives of other organisms. From a biological perspective, what is advanced and successful then? Some would argue to be biologically succesful would be a twofold undertaking that includes (a) one's personal survival, and (b) reproduction. The later case points at the evolutionary success of a species. Stick around as long as you can and you are successful. Problem is, sharks have stuck around some 350 million years, while humans have only been on the scene 350 thousand years. Go figure. So, the notion of "most evolved," from a biological standpoint, does not make much sense...

And just to round things off, there are not 100 different known species of sharks, but around 400 (give and take a few).

Answer 3

all sharks are FISH - even the shark called the Whale Shark is a fish. All whales are mammals. Here is an easy way of differentiating fish and mammals:
if the tail swings:
- up and down - MAMMAL
- side to side - FISH

LONG drawn out answers are not neccessary.

Answer 4

No, Sharks are not mammals.
They are among the primitive group of fishes (Class Pisces) called as Elasmobranchei or commonly as cartilaginous fishes. In these, skeleton is not calcified hence soft, but have very sharp, hundreds of homodont teeth. And are very cruel carnivorous of sea.
Very common example is dog shark Scoliodon
Mammals are most evolved vertebrates characterized by hairs on skin, mammary gland and viviparous.
Pisces are at the bottom of vertebrates while mammalia are at the top.

Answer 5

Sharks are fish; mammals have body hair, nurse their young and give birth to live young, among other things. Dolphins are mammals, however.

Answer 6

No, Although Sharks belong to the Phylum Chordata, they are under different class called Chondrichthyes. They have cartilaginous skeleton and keen olfactory sense. There are more than 100 species of sharks. Some species able to detect as little as one part per million of blood in seawater.

Answer 7

Sharks are fishes, cartilaginous fishes at that, as there bones are mostly composed of cartilage, not actual bone. Pretty cool creature when you consider how little they have changed over the years, pretty well adapted to what they do.

Answer 8

sharks are not mammals, they are fish

Answer 9

No they are of the class Pisces and order chondreicthies(dont mind the spelling),they are fishes as they do not have a hollow dorsal notochord nor do they have nerve chord

Answer 10

no, theyre a fish. heres an easy way to tell the difference: porpoises' or whales' tails function in a vertical motion, fish tails move horizontally.