Recently, in a remote village in sosogon Province, the southernmost tip of the Philippine island of Luzon, the villagers woke up early in the morning to find a strange-looking giant-billed monster fish lying on the beach, which had been dead for a long time and was washed ashore by the waves. It was identified that this giant-billed monster fish turned out to be a rare giant-mouthed shark, with a length of about 4.57 meters and a large mouth full of sharp and fine teeth.
At present, the cause of its death is unknown, and local scientists suspect that it was entangled in fishing nets and ran aground in a panic. Enova, a spokesman for the Philippine Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources, explained that megamouth sharks cannot be hunted because they inhabit the sea below 4500 meters most of the time and are difficult to catch.
The Philippine Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources said: "We want to study and verify the cause of death of the giant shark, and then we will use the animal specimen stripping and make it into a specimen and collect it in the local museum."
01The world's most elusive shark was not discovered until 1976, and only 226 were seen worldwide
Known as "the world's most elusive shark", the megalomous shark has been recorded as a rare 226 by 2022. Interestingly, scientists still know little about the shark's habitat habits, and even the population is unknown.
The first megalomanth shark, found in Hawaii in 1976, weighs about 750 kilograms and has a large beak that is 1 meter wide. Later, they were also found in the Philippines, Japan, China, Indonesia, Hawaii and other places.
In November 1984, another megalomous shark was caught near santa caterina island. Since then, the hunt for megalomous sharks has begun, followed by 4 more megalomous sharks. It was not until 1994 that the first female megalomanth was caught off the coast of Fukuoka City, Kyushu Island, Japan, weighing about 800 kilograms.
In March 2006, a 4.6-meter-long megalomous shark was captured in the southern waters of the East China Sea. In February 2015, Filipino fishermen spotted a rare megalomous shark that was dead when it was found. No megamouth sharks have been spotted since then until this year.
02 A big man in the ocean, the blood basin mouth is 1.5 meters wide, and 50 rows of fine teeth are densely packed in the mouth
It is understood that the megalomanth shark, also known as the largemouth shark, the megalomand shark, and the largemouth shark, is the only extant species of the genus megalogus in the family Porphyllaceae. The head of the megaloman shark is round and wide, the nose is small, and the eyes are laterally located on the head. Their brain content is very small, only 19.8 grams, no wonder they don't look very smart.
As the big man in the ocean, the megaloman shark weighs 600-1600 kg, weighs an average of about 1224 kg, and can reach 4-5 meters in length.
Huge mouths are their biggest feature. The mouth can be opened very wide, the amplitude of the expansion can reach about 90 degrees, the blood basin mouth is up to 1.5 meters wide, the jaw can extend beyond the nose, and 50 rows of whisker-like fine teeth are densely packed in the mouth.
Its large mouth seems to be able to swallow everything, many people see its first glance, it is estimated that they will be frightened by this blood basin mouth, biologists are also named according to the characteristics of the big mouth.
The tail is long, but asymmetrical, still lacking a keel, the upper lobes of the hind tail are not obviously upturned, and the back is covered with thick round spots, eerie, and the overall appearance looks like a sea monster witch.
03 The plankton swims to the mouth, and the mouth scoops up the plankton like a spoon and swallows it all
According to expert research, the footprints of megalomous sharks are spread throughout all the seas within the Tropic of Cancer, they inhabit depths of about 5-1000 meters, often inhabit the deep sea, and are rarely found.
Usually, the giant shark is not very active, the swimming speed is not fast, most of the time is quietly lurking in the deep sea, lazily lying down to sleep, after sleeping full stomach hungry, it will float from the bottom of the sea to the surface to eat.
The favorite foods are, of course, krill and jellyfish, but also small fish, mainly filtered for zooplankton. Keep opening this huge mouth while swimming, relying on 50 rows of tiny teeth to filter plankton.
When foraging, this guy will choose the sea where plankton is dense, and use the white wavy striped glowing organs near the left and right gills to attract the attention of plankton such as jellyfish and let them swim automatically.
They just open their mouths, wait for the plankton to swim to the mouth, and then extend their upper jaws, lower their jaws, and the mouth scoops up the plankton of the water like a spoon, enveloping all the food in it, and the sea water is naturally discharged through the two gills.
Don't look at the giant shark's appearance is weird and scary, but people are still very docile, and they are not actively aggressive. Because of its Buddhist personality, it often becomes a good meal for large predators such as sperm whales. It seems that the animal kingdom also likes the fierce and often bully the good.
epilogue
Since 2010, the number of giant sharks has become more and more rare, and many Japanese and Americans have taken a fancy to the huge interests of giant sharks and have fished at all costs, and the survival of giant sharks has been greatly threatened.
If we don't protect the megaloman in time now, and do something selfish with our conscience, then the megaloman may have disappeared from the earth before we fully understood it.