{"id":770569,"date":"2026-06-30T07:19:12","date_gmt":"2026-06-30T07:19:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/770569\/"},"modified":"2026-06-30T07:19:12","modified_gmt":"2026-06-30T07:19:12","slug":"think-youve-got-thick-skin-its-nothing-compared-to-this-super-tough-animal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/770569\/","title":{"rendered":"Think you&#8217;ve got thick skin? It&#8217;s nothing compared to this super-tough animal"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>An <a href=\"https:\/\/www.discoverwildlife.com\/animal-facts\/mammals\/pink-fairy-armadillo-has-unique-double-skin\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">armadillo<\/a>? An <a href=\"https:\/\/www.discoverwildlife.com\/animal-facts\/mammals\/facts-about-elephants\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">elephant<\/a>? A <a href=\"https:\/\/www.discoverwildlife.com\/animal-facts\/mammals\/facts-about-rhinos\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">rhinoceros<\/a>? You&#8217;d be forgiven for thinking one of these animals has the thickest skin on Earth. But you&#8217;d be wrong.<\/p>\n<p>The armadillo may be armoured up to the hilt, and the elephant may be famous for it&#8217;s tough skin, but it is another animal that holds the record for the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.guinnessworldrecords.com\/world-records\/497660-thickest-animal-skin\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">world&#8217;s thickest animal skin<\/a>. <\/p>\n<p>As well as being the largest fish in the ocean, the extraordinary <a href=\"https:\/\/www.discoverwildlife.com\/animal-facts\/fish\/facts-about-whale-sharks\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">whale shark<\/a> (Rhincodon typus) has the thickest skin of any living creature. Measuring up to 10cm in certain areas, the skin is hard and rough to touch. <\/p>\n<p>Whale shark skin is generally dark grey in colour, with a white belly and grey or white spots and stripes in a pattern unique to each individual shark.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p>Whale sharks also have something called <a href=\"https:\/\/www.discoverwildlife.com\/animal-facts\/fish\/do-sharks-have-teeth-on-eyeballs\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">dermal denticles<\/a>. These are tiny, flat, modified &#8216;teeth&#8217;, a little like scales, that cover the body. They are sheathed in enamel to reduce drag in the water. Whale shark eyes are also coated in these tiny teeth-like scales.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1707\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Whale-shark-with-diver-getty-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"Whale shark in the blue waters of cenderawasih bay\" class=\"wp-image-156680\"\/>Whale shark skin can be up to 10cm thick in places. Credit: PaulBCowell via Getty Images<\/p>\n<p>You may also like<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An armadillo? An elephant? A rhinoceros? You&#8217;d be forgiven for thinking one of these animals has the thickest&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":770570,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[49,48,66,323],"class_list":["post-770569","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-science","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/770569","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=770569"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/770569\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/770570"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=770569"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=770569"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=770569"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}