Prehistoric shark! Everybody out of the water!

Sorry to be so alarmist. It seems like a rather fascinating creature- from afar. I wouldn't want to meet up with one in a public pool. The body looks quite a bit like that of an eel.

video footage:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QP9dHn0EDPk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_W0Igx6ht00


http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16785254/
Reuters
Updated: 9:33 a.m. ET Jan 24, 2007
TOKYO - A species of shark rarely seen alive because its natural habitat is 2,000 feet or more under the sea was captured on film by staff at a Japanese marine park this week.

The Awashima Marine Park in Shizuoka, south of Tokyo, was alerted by a fisherman at a nearby port on Sunday that he had spotted an odd-looking eel-like creature with a mouthful of needle-sharp teeth.

Marine park staff caught the 5-foot long creature, which they identified as a female frilled shark, sometimes referred to as a “living fossil” because it is a primitive species that has changed little since prehistoric times.

The shark appeared to be in poor condition when park staff moved it to a seawater pool where they filmed it swimming and opening its jaws.

“We believe moving pictures of a live specimen are extremely rare,” said an official at the park. “They live between 600 and 1,000 meters under the water, which is deeper than humans can go.”

“We think it may have come close to the surface because it was sick, or else it was weakened because it was in shallow waters,” the official said.

The shark died a few hours after being caught.

Frilled sharks, which feed on other sharks and sea creatures, are sometimes caught in the nets of trawlers but are rarely seen alive.

catchy title..but what else should i expect from you? the body of an eel hmm and ewww lolol...does sound fascinating however..

p.s. Mica..i accidentally deleted your pm before i could answer back grr didn't want you to think i forgot about one who is unforgettable..🙂

hey and how did you get that shark thingie to do that on your screen????

we (don't) have the technology

Well, hey! Hope all is well with you. Much as I might like to take credit for that little graphic, I've never taken the time to actually make something like the one above. I just did a little search under shark and gif (the most common extension for graphics) and found this one. Now it's inhabiting the waters at the bottom of my post. But we all know sharks can't remain motionless like that without expiring- how ridiculous! I won't even try to pass it off as a real shark .

Incidentally, the youtube links above show the actual footage of the frilled shark.

That is one ugly fish. 😱

Saw this one yesterday on Fark I did. Immensely cool but, at the same time, quite eerie.

I agree, HDS. Very strange and eerie. I may cancel that deep-sea diving trip, afterall.

I suppose it isn't the most attractive fish, milagros, although most fish might have trouble getting by on their looks 😛 .

Though I know absolutely nothing about the movement patterns of a healthy frilled shark, I have to concede that it does look rather sick. Its movements are very tense and rigid.

Too bad the poor thing died.

CitY of MicA said:

But we all know sharks can't remain motionless like that without expiring- how ridiculous! I won't even try to pass it off as a real shark .

Incidentally, the youtube links above show the actual footage of the frilled shark.

Click to expand...

Actually, there are a few sharks that can remain motionless, the Nurse and the Zebra shark for example.
I saw this video and was excited. I've always had an interest in sharks since I was little. Even though it looked similar to the eel and didn't have a typical shark body (not all of them do) it was still an incredible find. Too bad it was sick, it almost looked fake.

They should have known it was sick...it looked a little green around the gills. Couldn't they tell it was feeling a little "eel"? **carcrash**

OK, I'm done.

license to eel

Just remember, phfttklr- the puns can always get worse 😉 . I had forgotten about those motionless sharks- lazy bastards! Maybe that's a little nurse shark gif. Please make a note of the fact on the official TMF pun tabulators chart that I am not making a pun concerning the 'nurse' shark or 'eelness.'

Who really knows what types of creatures exist in the ocean depths. It would be interesting if they developed a unit that could withstand the pressure and shield video and audio recording equipment to be sent into this unchartered territory. Mark my words- deap sea exporation - that is the future!

I don't have any idea, obviously, how that frilled shark moves under normal conditions either, Dussicar. At first, I figured that the park staff must have felt awful guilty when the thing died shortly after having been removed from it's natural environment. But it sounds as if it probably wouldn't have been found in such shallow water if it was a-ok.