After a trade with Paige and some playful time with my niece, I decided to start collecting sea life figures. Mostly sharks and cetaceans.
Though, as these figures are usually expensive and take too much room, I am only collecting small ones around 3 and 4 inches (7,5 to 10 cm).
Using them also to learn a little about these wonderful creatures.
Here I'll present my few sharks and rays.
As I still don't have a ray, this first post will only show sharks.
Curiously, from the 8 groups of sharks, I also still don't have any from the 3 most primitive groups. Hexanchiformes, Squaliformes and Pristiophoriformes.
Squatiniformes is a very interesting group, angel sharks have very flattened bodies and long pectoral fins that make them look somewhat like rays. :DAlso minimal dorsal fins next to the tail and no anal fin. Here the Play Visions.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]Heterodontiformes, I have also a Play Visions, a zebra bullhead shark.
Bullheads are also easily recognizable once they have a typical head shape with the mouth placed in anterior position.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]Orectolobiformes, also known as carpet sharks, have the largest fish of the world, the whale shark. I am lucky of having a fantastic replica of this filter feeder.
The Colorata whale shark that is 1 inch larger than the Play Visions and that I received as a gift a long time ago from Suebeedo.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]Carcharhiniformes is a group of very well known sharks. Here I have a pair of tiger sharks. These large creatures have wedge shaped heads, strips that fade with age and a proeminent upper lob of the caudal fin.
I have the tiger shark from Safari Ocean Toob, this one is surely old once I cannot see any strips.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]Received some time ago, from Pege, a member that is helping me enjoying this subject, a China tiger shark, more rubbery and smaller than the Safari one but with strips completely visible turning it more recognizable.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]Another Play Visions and as all others, from Paige, this time a hammerhead shark, I think it is a great hammerhead but it wouldn't surprise me if it is another species. Someone knows? I added some little pictures to help identifying, the pelvic fins makes me think I am correct but...
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]Lamniformes the last group, countains the mackerel sharks. Also many known among them including the famous great white shark.
This is a simple replica from the same set of sharks from Play Visions.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]Belonging to the same group is this goblin shark, a deep sea creature not very known. While playing with my 7 years old niece, she told me immediatly that it was her favorite and told me to find another to her. :lol:So, if someone spend holidays on deep sea, remember to bring one to my niece.
Notice the unusual long and flatened snout.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]Now the thresher shark. There are three species of threshers, this one looks the common thresher also known as sea fox.
These sharks are identified for having a long upper lob of their tails that they use as a weapon to stun prey.
Actually, due to size restrictions, this particular replica has a quite small tail. :)
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]Now I need to buy the Safari Sharks Toob, there I can find some still missing like blue shark, gray shark, leopard shark, mako shark and spoted eagle ray.
There is also on Safari Toobs the bat ray (Venomous creatures), eagle ray (Ocean toob) and Galapagos shark (Galapagos toob).Still a manta ray from Play Visions Galapagos Animals. These I hope I can find here in trades or so.
There are a lot of masterpieces and unusual species from Colorata but those are not easy to find.
Also Wild Republic has some sharks, like a nurse shark, bamboo shark but I still don't know their sizes.
Maybe Nayab and other China stuff can enrich my collection.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]Shark anatomy from Wikipedia
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As they are only about 470 species and there are also more than 500 species of rays and skates, it won't last too long. 
...when you kiss a croc or a lizard, you'll have a... wizard! 
