White shark is about 1.95× longer by these reference values.
White shark uses a 6 m upper reference, compared with 3.08 m for Nurse shark. White shark's weight reference is about 21× heavier.
ON THE SAME SCALE
Human. Bus. Whale.
Pick your reference.
Length bars use upper comparison values and do not show body depth, tail proportion or typical adult size. A long thresher tail, for example, does not equal whale-shark body mass.
THE NUMBERS
Side by side.
WHAT THE DATA CAN SAY
Size is not the whole animal.
Length and weight
Nurse shark is represented by recorded to 3.08 m / 10.1 ft; White shark by about 6 m / 20 ft. Length is a recorded maximum; mass is a rounded adult reference. Maximum length and mass are exceptional upper-end figures.
Bite evidence
Nurse shark: Suction performance is central to feeding and is not captured by bite-force rankings. White shark: A 3-D finite-element model predicted the bite of a very large individual; it was not measured on a living shark.
Living versus extinct
Both species are living, but record-sized individuals are rare. These upper references should not be read as normal adult size.
Ecology changes the matchup
A small mouth and powerful suction suit its bottom-feeding life. Its headline bite number is a computer model, not a live-animal measurement.
TRACE THE CLAIMS