January 30, 2015
John Hopton for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online
A fishing crew in Australia had a surprise guest in their catch recently, after snaring a rarely seen shark with 300 teeth and a terrifying, pre-historic appearance that was enough to make even Australian fisherman go all sissy.
The 6-foot long frilled shark more closely resembles a crazed eel, but has the tail of a shark. Referred to as a ‘living fossil,’ Its ancestry goes back at least 80 million years. With 300 teeth in dozens of rows its diet consists of creatures more half its size, including squid and octopus.
Although the shark is known to science, they are very hard to find, even if we wanted to. Simon Boag from Australia’s South East Trawl Fishing Association said it was the first time in living memory that anyone had laid eyes on one. “We couldn’t find a fisherman who had ever seen one before,” he told ABC News.
Fuel for nightmares
Looking about as angry as you would expect for something that had pretty much been left alone for 80 million years and suddenly dragged onto a fishing boat, the frilled shark struck fear into the hearts of the fisherman who had mistakenly dragged it up.
Skipper David Guillot told Australian Fairfax radio that: “The head on it was like something out of a horror movie. It was quite horrific looking. … It was quite scary actually.”
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