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The 'Prehistoric' & Rarely Seen Frilled Shark

triplesod

Gone But Not Forgotten
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I'm surprised no one has mentioned this yet. I hope it doesn't turn out to be a fake.

There is a video and a CGI picture on the page, I can't tell you owt about the vid though as my PC won't play it.


http://cbs3.com/topstories/local_story_024085850.html
Rare Prehistoric Shark Found In Japan

(AP) TOKYO The staff of a Japanese aquarium took pictures of a rare frilled shark on Sunday, after it was discovered by local residents at Awashima Port in Shizuoka, southwest of Tokyo.

This prehistoric shark is rarely seen alive as its natural habitat lies up to 1,280 metres (4,200 feet) deep under the sea.

Experts at the Awashima Marine Park were able to examine the creature, which was a female, and film it swimming around.

Unfortunately though it died a couple of hours after it was moved to its new environment.

The eel-looking shark, with its mouth full of 300 trident-shaped teeth, measured 5.3 feet-long and weighed 16.5 pounds.

Frilled sharks normally inhabit deep sea waters between 400 and 4,200 feet and rarely come to the surface.

However they have been seen near the coast of Japan before, especially during the winter time when the water temperature drops and they have to get to warmer areas to feed.

Frilled sharks can grow to a length of nearly 6.5 feet and eat deep-sea squids and other soft-bodied preys.

Most specimen are found in the Japanese waters.

(© 2007 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. )
 
That is quite an interesting looking animal.
Given it's rarity, and the track record for moved animals dying in their new homes, I wish we would stop messing with them.
 
Yeah, it's sad but it is Human nature unfortunately.

Especially if money is involved. Say some hick from Aberdeen Washington comes across a Sasquatch while out hunting deer (hunting deer? As if that isn't bad enough already!). He won't care about science or biology, he will be more interested in the doller signs flashing in front of his eyes. :cry:
 
licata1708 said:
That is quite an interesting looking animal.
Given it's rarity, and the track record for moved animals dying in their new homes, I wish we would stop messing with them.

Amen to that...but I think we're hoping, sadly. Pity they couldn't have examined it, taken some pictures and let it go.

EDIT - thanks for the link, BTW - the video works fine!
 
licata1708 said:
That is quite an interesting looking animal.


You're being charitable.

I wouldn't eat that thing if I was starving. On a dare.
 
I don't think if they let it go it was going to survive, generally when creatures come up from such depths (be it in nets or under their own power) they die very soon afterwards.
 
It's bloody amazing.

It looks like it swam straight out of the past.

Utterly fascinating.

I have a pet fascination with creatures that haven't troubled to evolve much lately ; it bespeaks a kind of Darwinistic arrogance that I can't help but admire.
 
If it was bigger it could be a Nessie...
 
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/wor...s-the-living-fossil-sighted-in-Australia.html
Rarely seen frilled shark known as the living fossil sighted in Australia

By Agency

8:52PM GMT 20 Jan 2015


The rarely sighted frilled shark - whose ancestry dates back 80 million years and is known as the living fossil - has turned up in waters off southeastern Victoria, Australia.

It was caught on a fishing trawler in waters near Lakes Entrance in the state's Gippsland region.

Simon Boag from the South East Trawl Fishing Association said it was the first time a frilled shark has been sighted in living local memory.

"We couldn't find a fisherman who had ever seen one before," he told local reporters.

"It does look 80 million years old. It looks prehistoric, it looks like it's from another time!"

frilled-shark_3171332b.jpg
 
According to a forum piece in the latest FT we shouldn't call animals and plants "living fossils" anymore, though I can't see the animals in question would be all that bothered.
 
According to a forum piece in the latest FT we shouldn't call animals and plants "living fossils" anymore, though I can't see the animals in question would be all that bothered.
Evolutionarily challenged? Differently evolved? Neither sounds right.
 
Survivors?
Literally true. I think the point I felt the article in FT didn't effectively express is that we all have qualities that belong to ancient lineages, it's just some animals have qualities that we associate with ancient lineages more because they're rarely seen these days. Those creatures have those qualities because they made it work, and continued to evolve with those qualities, while the rest of us abandoned them and found other solutions to the problems of survival and procreation.
 
Fossil dig leads to unexpected discovery of 91-million-year-old shark new to science

Source: phys.org / Taylor & Francis
Date: 17 hours ago

A 91-million-year-old fossil shark newly named Cretodus houghtonorum discovered in Kansas joins a list of large dinosaur-era animals. Preserved in sediments deposited in an ancient ocean called the Western Interior Seaway that covered the middle of North America during the Late Cretaceous period (144 million to 66 million years ago), Cretodus houghtonorum was an impressive shark estimated to be nearly 17 feet or slightly more than 5 meters long based on a new study appearing in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology.

https://phys-org.cdn.ampproject.org...xpected-discovery-million-year-old-shark.html
 
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