Scientists Find Prehistoric Shark With Bizarre Teeth From 80 Million Years Ago When Dinosaurs Lived

Via Wikipedia

The modern species of human beings is thought to have started to evolve some 200,000 years ago. This shark laughs in our faces for being neophytes at this whole living on Earth thing. Scientists have found an extraordinary specimen in the ocean that they are calling a “living fossil.” A terrifying shark species with bizarre teeth that dates back almost 80 million years was found by scientists this year and it gives us a glimpse back to an era when dinosaurs roamed the planet.

This beautiful creature was caught off the coast of Portugal in August and they were not sure what species it was until now. Portugal’s Institute for the Sea and Atmosphere (IPMA) determined that the toothy prehistoric cold-blooded vertebrate is a male frilled shark (Chlamydoselachus anguineus). This particular shark was 5-feet in length, but they are said to grow to as much as six-and-a-half-feet. It was caught at a depth of approximately 2,300-feet in the Atlantic Ocean, but it is a deep-sea dweller that is usually found between 390 and 4,200 feet below the surface. The Chlamydoselachus anguineus is believed to live as far back as the Cretaceous Period, when the Tyrannosaurus Rex and Triceratops still were alive.

The frilled shark is named after its unusual gills. The creature has six pairs of gills that have “frilly” edges with the first pair of gills stretching all the way across its throat. The frilled shark features dorsal, pelvic, and anal fins which enable the creature to lunge at its prey, much like a common snake will do. The shark features a peculiar set of 300 teeth that are arranged in 25 rows, “which allows it to trap squid, fish and other sharks in sudden lunges,” according to Margarida Castro of the University of the Algarve. But what might be the most alien characteristic of the frilled shark might be the extremely lengthy gestation period. Fun fact: frilled sharks have a gestation period of 42 months, which is an incredible three-and-a-half years. Scientists believe the frilled shark has the longest gestation period of any living animal.