Japanese marine biologists came across a rare frilled shark, which was sick and had moved to shallow waters. These sharks are considered "living fossils" as they haven't changed much for millions of years. They usually live around 2000-3000 feet deep, and this is the first time a live one has been caught on tape since being discovered in the 19th century.
Observation: this is the second very rare, undocumented sea creature that Japanese scientists have videotaped, along with the Giant Squid a few weeks ago.
An interesting factiod:
Reproduction is not well understood, but like many other sharks they bear live young (ovoviviparous), with litter sizes of 2 to 12 pups. Compagno states "They are pregnant for a long time, probably one to two years". This would give the frilled shark the possibility of having the longest gestation of any vertebrate, even exceeding the elephant's period of 22 months.
Comments
Very cool... I would like to put one into the Discovery Institute swimming pool. No. Wait. I changed my mind. Make that a Great White in the DI swimming pool, although because of "professional courtesy", the GW would probably not attack the DI swimmers.
Posted by: J-Dog | January 24, 2007 1:40 PM
If you put one of these in the DI pool, they'd probably say "Look, it hasn't changed in 10 million years! That proves evolution is a hoax."
Although I'm pretty sure none of the DI-ers know how to swim. They talk out their ass so much that a normal swimming position would likely result in their drowning.
Posted by: Shelley Batts | January 24, 2007 1:44 PM
Rats! You beat me to it!
Posted by: afarensis | January 24, 2007 1:57 PM
There is an amusing juxtaposition in the link to CNN. Just below the shark story is a picture of a much more horrible and disgusting creature, a Dickhead Cheney, who is given as spouting,
"Vice President Dick Cheney on Wednesday dismissed as "hogwash" the suggestion that blunders may have hurt the administration's credibility on Iraq"
"Hogwash" is typically what comes out of a Dickhead Cheney mouth.
Posted by: bernarda | January 24, 2007 6:19 PM
Dunking Parakeet Becomes Web Video Star
Posted by: Mustafa Mond, FCD | January 25, 2007 9:51 AM
Very rare and very ugly... :P
Posted by: BenP | January 25, 2007 11:31 AM
Indeed. Although not as scary as the deep sea angler fish to me.
Posted by: Shelley Batts | January 25, 2007 2:15 PM
Gotta love odd things!
Posted by: romunov | January 25, 2007 2:56 PM
Deep sea news has some data on these sharks.
Posted by: romunov | January 26, 2007 2:46 AM
To my uninformed eyes, it looks to be moving at a fairly slow pace and the gills seem to be flared. Is that normal or due to the fact the shark is 1000+ feet above its normal domain and experiencing decompression sickness (for lack of a better term)?
Posted by: Russel | January 26, 2007 12:08 PM
To my uninformed eyes, it looks to be moving at a fairly slow pace and the gills seem to be flared. Is that normal or due to the fact the shark is 1000+ feet above its normal domain and experiencing decompression sickness (for lack of a better term)?
All the media coverage represents it as a sick, old individual, so I think that's why its swimming kinda slow and looking disoriented. I think the appearance of the gills are normal, after reading a blurb about the shark on wikipedia. It said that the reason it was called "frilled shark" was because of the odd appearance of the gills.
Posted by: Shelley Batts | January 26, 2007 1:03 PM