By Brian Clark Howard
National Geographic
With its gaping, tooth-filled mouth and its slender, eel-like body, it’s not hard to see why scientists think the frilled shark may have inspired ancient tales of sea monsters. Looking like something out of a nightmare, the deep-sea creature is rarely seen. But fishers in Australia pulled one up this week.
The frilled shark is often called a “living fossil” because it is thought to have changed little in about 80 million years. The fish also bears a resemblance to ancestor species that lived during the time of the dinosaurs.
On Tuesday, Australian media reported that a fishing trawler pulled up a six-foot-long (two-meter) frilled shark in waters near Lakes Entrance off southeastern Victoria, Australia.
Simon Boag of Australia’s South East Trawl Fishing Association told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation that no local fisher had ever seen the creature before. “It does look 80 million years old,” Boag told the ABC. “It looks prehistoric. It looks like it’s from another time!” (See rare video of another species of “sea serpent.”)
“It has 300 teeth over 25 rows, so once you’re in that mouth, you’re not coming out,” he said.
The six-foot-long (two-meter) shark has a slender body and a mouth full of teeth.
The shark "was on its last legs" when it made it to the surface, Boag told National Geographic.
Boag said the frilled shark was caught in about 3,300 feet (1,000 meters) of water. The species has previously been found at depths up to 5,000 feet (1,500 meters) but is generally thought to live no deeper than 4,000 feet (1,200 meters).
Australia’s national science agency, the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), confirmed that the specimen was a frilled shark.
Frilled sharks are occasionally seen at the surface, mostly when they are sick. Most known specimens have been around six feet (two meters) in length. But the California-based MarineBio Conservation Society says that the netting of a 25-foot-long (7.6-meter) shark related to the frilled shark in 1880 “suggests there may be some giant frilled sharks in the sea that could be taken for sea serpents.”
In 2007 a 5.3-foot-long (1.6-meter) frilled shark was found in shallow water in Japan and transferred to a marine park. It died hours after being caught
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Source:http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2015/01/150122-frilled-shark-australia-deep-sea-creatures/
The frilled shark (Chlamydoselachus anguineus) is one of two extant species of shark in the family Chlamydoselachidae, with a wide but patchy distribution in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. This species is found over the outer continental shelf and upper continental slope, generally near the bottom, though there is evidence of substantial upward movements. It has been caught as deep as 1,570 m (5,150 ft), although it is uncommon below 1,200 m (3,900 ft).[2] In Suruga Bay, Japan, it is most common at depths of 50–200 m (160–660 ft). Exhibiting several "primitive" features, the frilled shark has often been termed a "living fossil". It reaches a length of 2 m (6.6 ft) and has a dark brown, eel-like body with the dorsal, pelvic, and anal fins placed far back. Its common name comes from the frilly or fringed appearance of its six pairs of gill slits, with the first pair meeting across the throat.
Seldom observed, the frilled shark may capture prey by bending its body and lunging forward like a snake. The long, extremely flexible jaws enable it to swallow prey whole, while its many rows of small, needle-like teeth make it difficult for the prey to escape. It feeds mainly on cephalopods, leavened by bony fishes and other sharks. This species is aplacental viviparous: the embryos emerge from their egg capsules inside the mother's uterus where they survive primarily on yolk. The gestation period may be as long as three and a half years, the longest of any vertebrate. Litter sizes vary from two to fifteen, and there is no distinct breeding season. Frilled sharks are occasional bycatch in commercial fisheries but have little economic value. The International Union for Conservation of Nature has assessed it as Near Threatened, since even incidental catches may deplete its population given its low reproductive rate. This shark, or a supposed giant relative, is a suggested source for reports of sea serpents.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frilled_shark
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