References and Further Information: 1  Morrissey, J.F. and J.L. Sumich. 2012. Introduction to the Biology of Marine Life (10th Edition). 2  University of California Museum of Paleontology. Bilateral (left/right) Symmetry.
A lot of things. For one, Whale sharks are fish and use gills to breathe. Blue whales are mammals. The blue whale is also bigger than the whale shark. The tail structure is also different if you watch the whale shark swim, it uses its tail in a side to side motion while the blue whale uses a up and down movement.
View full size image. The worldâs largest whale is also the largest animal on the planet â the blue whale. At 98 feet in length and 180 metric tons, the blue whale tops even dinosaurs to be the largest animal ever. They filter krill through their baleen, and need 4-8 tons of the tiny plankton per day to survive. Each whaleâs jaws contains about 320 pairs of black baleen plates with dark gray bristles. A blue whale tongue alone can weigh as much as an elephant. The animals live to be 80-90 years old and live all around the worldâs oceans, spending summers in cold polar waters and winters closer to the Equator.