About 500 shark species are known to be in existence. Most people probably only know of one: the Great White Shark.

There is a great degree of diversity among shark species. Sharks include the Whale Shark, the world’s largest fish at up to 46 feet long and as much as 15 tons, while other shark species are as small as 10 inches. Most are predators, but a few, including the Whale Shark, filter plankton from the seawater.

Sharks are in the sub-class Elasmobranch, which they share with skates and rays. The Elasmobranchs are in turn part of the class Chondrichthyes, or cartilaginous fish—one of the five classes that make up the fish world. See “How Sharks are Different than other Fish” to know what makes a shark a shark.

Shark species are categorized into the following 10 orders. Click to view a Comparison of Shark Orders or learn more about the specific orders by clicking on the links, below.

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