The five-foot-long frill shark, discovered by a trawler of more than 2,000 feet underwater in Portugal, is a close and distant cousin of hammerheads and great white sharks.
Predators recount how they captured a terrifying and rare shark with 300 teeth off the coast of Portugal. The 5-foot-long frill shark, often referred to as "living fossils" because they have barely changed over the past 80 million years, were dug up from more than 2,000 meters underwater. The researchers told the Portuguese News Channel that they have been working with the European Union to reduce by-catch or unwanted catches from commercial fishing.
Frill sharks have been swimming in the deep ocean since dinosaurs wandered the planet — their massive articulated jaws were used to catch squid and other fish. In a statement published by the Portuguese Institute for the Sea and Atmosphere, the researchers said the shark had "an elongated body and a head reminiscent of a snake."
The statement also said that although frilled sharks have been found in the Atlantic Ocean off the coasts of Australia and Japan, little is known about the ancient shark. It's unclear why the shark survives for so long. But presumably, this frilled shark provided inspiration for 19th-century sailors' stories about sea snakes. Scientists aren't sure how many frill sharks exist because they lurk in extreme depths, where they are shrouded in constant darkness, subjected to enormous pressure and extremely cold temperatures.
Back in 2007, a frill shark believed to be sick or injured was spotted near the surface of the water, but died shortly after it was transferred to a marine park. The International Union for The Conservation of Nature lists the wrinkled shark as the least concerned species, but they warn that an increase in deep-sea commercial fishing could increase the number of trawlers caught by mistake.