It seems like every week we’re hearing about some new freaky creature from the depths of the ocean emerging to strike fear into any human even thinking about stepping foot in the water. Such is the case with the creature that researchers spotted swimming off the coast of portugal. Though it’s “new” to most humans, the frilled shark has been around for about 80 million years and is considered a “living fossil,” as Newsweek explains:
Screenshot - Newsweek Scientists believe the frilled shark has remained the same, both inside and out, since the Cretaceous Period, when the Tyrannosaurus rex and Triceratops still roamed the planet. The creature, known by scientists as Chlamydoselachus anguineus, is incredibly simple and unevolved, most likely due to the lack of nutrients found in its deep-sea dwellings. A Japanese study of the shark found in Suruga Bay, Japan, revealed that its diet is 61 percent cephalopods—the class to which squids and octopus belong.
_
_
By OpenCage The shark also has a unique mouth shape. Its jaw has more than 300 teeth neatly lined in 25 rows that, according to professor Margarida Castro of the University of the Algarve, are specifically designed to help it “to trap squid, fish and other sharks in sudden lunges,” The Portugal News reported. It’s lined with spines called dermal denticles that, combined with the teeth, give the mouth an all-around frightening look. It’s unlikely you will ever come face-to-face with a living frilled shark. But if you do, it’s safe to say: Keep as far away as you can, and whatever you do, try to avoid its ferociously awesome jaw.
NOOA/Wikimedia Commons The frilled shark can grow to be over six feet in length and gets its name from its gills. While most sharks have a pair of gills, the frilled shark has six pair, with its first pair stretching all the way across its throat. All of the gills have “frilly” edges. The shark also has a unique mouth shape. Its jaw has more than 300 teeth neatly lined in 25 rows that, according to professor Margarida Castro of the University of the Algarve, are specifically designed to help it “to trap squid, fish and other sharks in sudden lunges,” The Portugal News reported.
_
_
Flickr It’s lined with spines called dermal denticles that, combined with the teeth, give the mouth an all-around frightening look. Here’s footage of a frilled shark that was discovered swimming off the coast of Japan: