Rarely seen shark with 300 teeth that’s been on earth for 80m years caught in Portugal

Trawlers have recounted the astonishing second they reeled in a terrifying uncommon shark with 300 enamel off the coast close to Portugal.

The 5 foot-long frilled shark, usually known as “living fossils” as a result of how little they’ve modified over the past 80 million years, was plucked from over 2,000 metres under the water’s floor.

Researchers informed the Portuguese information channel SIC Noticisias TV that they had been working with the EU to minimise the variety of variety of bycatches, or undesirable catches, on account of business fishing.

Frilled sharks have been swimming within the deep since dinosaurs roamed the Earth – and their enormous hinged jaws are used to nice impact capturing squid and different fish.

In a press release launched by the Portuguese Institute for the Sea and Atmosphere, researchers described the shark as having a “long slim body and a head reminiscent of a snake”.

Professor Margarida Castro of the University of the Algarve informed Sic Noticias the shark’s 300 enamel “allows it to trap squid, fish and other sharks in sudden lunges”.

Very little is understood concerning the historical species, the assertion added, regardless of frilled sharks being discovered within the Atlantic Ocean off the coasts of Australia and Japan.

It is unclear why the species has survived so long as it has, but it surely has been speculated the frilled shark supplied inspiration for nineteenth century sailors’ tales of sea serpents.

Scientists are uncertain of what number of frilled sharks exist, as they lurk at excessive depths, the place they’re shrouded in fixed darkness, crushing stress and intensely chilly temperatures.

In 2007, a frilled shark believed to be sick or injured was noticed close to the water’s floor, however died not lengthy after it was transferred to a marine park.

The International Union for the Conservation of Nature lists the frilled shark as a species of least concern, nonetheless they warned a rise in deep water business fishing might improve the quantity mistakenly pulled up by trawlers.

To keep updated with all the most recent information, be sure to signal as much as one among our newsletters right here .