Great white shark is about 1.35× longer by these reference values.
Great white shark uses a 6 m upper reference, compared with 4.45 m for Shortfin mako. Great white shark's weight reference is about 4.0× 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 SETS THEM APART
More than a size contest.
Length and weight
Shortfin mako is represented by reported to about 4.45 m / 14.6 ft; Great white shark by about 6 m / 20 ft. Record length and mass do not necessarily describe the same individual. Maximum length and mass are exceptional upper-end figures.
Habitat and diet
Shortfin mako: Open tropical and temperate oceans; fast fishes, squid and other sharks. Great white shark: Temperate seas worldwide; fish, rays and marine mammals.
Bite evidence
Shortfin mako: No directly comparable maximum bite-force estimate is used. Great white shark: A 3-D finite-element model predicted the bite of a very large individual; it was not measured on a living shark.
Records are not averages
Both species are living, but record-sized individuals are rare. These upper references should not be read as normal adult size.
TRACE THE CLAIMS