Frilled Shark – a living fossil captured alive

Reuters is reporting that the Awashima Marine Park in Shizuoka, Japan, captured a rare frilled shark. These primitive sharks are considered living fossils, looking more like eels than the more familiar shark types and may be found over a kilometre deep. While frequently caught in bottom dredging nets the frilled shark has rarely been seen alive. Caught in a poor state, the Awashima shark died shortly after capture. The Sydney Morning Herald article has a good photo of this quite scary looking creature. UPDATE (2007-01-25): A video of the frilled shark swimming is also available.

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