Rare, crazy-looking shark caught by Australian fisherman
Of course, from the shark's perspective, it's probably we humans who are the crazy-looking ones.
Of course, from the shark's perspective, it's probably we humans who are the crazy-looking ones.
A bizarre, freaky-looking shark with rows of needle-sharp teeth and an eel-like body was caught by a fisherman in Australia.
The odd creature is a rare type of shark known as a frilled shark, and is sometimes called a聽fish "fossil"聽because its roots can be traced back聽80 million years, CNN reported. It was found by fisherman David Guillot, who said he had never seen anything like it.
"The head on it was like something out of a horror movie," Guillot told Fairfax Radio on Wednesday,according to The Age. "It was quite horrific-looking ... It was quite scary, actually." [On the Brink: A Gallery of Wild Sharks]
Guillot was fishing for dory and sea perch near Lakes Entrance in Gippsland, off the southeastern coast of Victoria, when he dredged up the unusual fish from water nearly a mile聽(1.1 kilometers)聽deep.
The shark was about聽4.9 feet聽(1.5 meters)聽long, Guillot said. It was so strange-looking that he originally thought it was a new species,听according to CNN.
Frilled sharks (Chlamydoselachus anguineus)聽are normally found at extreme depths in cool, temperate waters off the coast of New Zealand and Japan. The fish can also be found between the coasts of the British Isles through Spain to northern Africa, Mark Meekan, a shark biologist at the Australian Institute of Marine Science, told The Age.
They are rarely caught, because their habitat is usually in areas where fishing is prohibited, but sometimes frilled sharks can be found in Taiwanese fish markets, scientists say.
The creature has聽25 rows of teeth聽(about聽300 in total)聽shaped like backwards needles. It usually eats squid and octopus, and can extend its jaw to swallow prey that is more than half its size, according to The Age. The shark's body resembles an eel's, and can turn back on itself.
The frilled shark was first described in 1884, and its closest relative, the cow shark, dates back about聽95 million years, The Age reported.
Frilled sharks have聽extremely long pregnancies聽because their embryos grow only聽about a half-inch聽(1.4 centimeters)聽each month. A typical frilled-shark pregnancy is estimated to last about three-and-a-half years.聽聽
The animal was still alive when Guillot pulled it out of the water but did not survive for long, so he donated the shark to a local museum, according to CNN.
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