Science

Judi Lynn

(164,039 posts)

6. Dinosaur-Age Shark with 300 'Frilled' Teeth Caught in Deep Sea

Mon Nov 13, 2017, 10:47 PM

Nov 2017

By Laura Geggel, Senior Writer | November 13, 2017 02:28pm ET

Forget about the minuscule odds of spotting Ahab's white whale: Sightings of the frilled shark, a so-called "living fossil" that has elusively swum around Earth's deep waters since the age of the dinosaurs, may been an even rarer find.

Deep-sea fishermen recently spotted the snake-like shark (Chlamydoselachus anguineus) in a pile of fish that unintentionally caught, known as bycatch, while they were fishing off the coast of Portugal. The shark died, but the fishermen handed it over to a research vessel, where scientists could study it, according to Boy Genius Report (BGR), a news site.

The examination gave scientists a close-up look at the shark's roughly 300 three-pointed teeth, which it uses to grab and kill prey, including fish, squid and other sharks. [In Photos: Seeing Sharks Up Close]

Margarida Castro, a fishery science researcher at the University of the Algarve, in Portugal, told Sic Noticias, a Portuguese news outlet, said that these strange teeth, arranged in a frill-like pattern, inspired the shark's name. The teeth look like backward needles, and its jaw can snatch prey more than half its size.

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https://www.livescience.com/60925-weird-shark-with-300-teeth-found.html?utm_source=notification