A fisherman, who has been sharing photos of the different sea creatures he captures, shared another bizarre photo from his ocean adventure.
Strange Sea Creature Captured From The Ocean
Russian fisherman Roman Fedortsov shared a new photo on Instagram of a prehistoric sea creature. It looks like an eel due to its long body with a snake-like head. It has 300 teeth.
The netizens were baffled at the sight, with many wondering what the creature was. Some even likened it to a dinosaur.
One said it was a "real dinosaur," and it was beautiful and it should not evolve. Many are also impressed by its rows of teeth. One joked that the teeth are so clean and white, so the fish might have brushed them often.
Another couldn't believe that the animal was real.
Some are furious that the extraordinary sea creature was caught as it should have been left alone. The netizen called the creature a "living fossil" and said it should have been left alive to allow it to reproduce.
Meanwhile, many were also thankful to Fedortsov for sharing photos of his catches. One thanked the fisherman because they weren't aware that the sea creature existed had they not saw it on his Instagram account.
Sea Creature Identified As A Frilled Shark
Several netizens also suggested that the fish was a frilled shark and it was actually one. According to National Geographic, frilled sharks live in the deep ocean for 80 million years and little is known about them.
Frilled sharks have an eerie appearance with their eel-like body that's dark brown to grey in color and amphictyony, referring to the articulation of the jaws to the head. They have six pairs of gill slits along the throat, giving them a frilling, fringed appearance, which inspired their name - frilled shark, Ocean Info noted.
In 2017, the same fish was caught by a trawler off the Portuguese coast, Independent reported.
Researchers spoke with Portuguese outlet SIC Noticisas TV and said they were conducting a European Union project to minimize bycatch or unwanted catch that results during commercial fishing and they hauled one of the rarest catches they ever had.
Frilled sharks reportedly existed during the dinosaur era, but their peers, including Tyrannosaurus rex and triceratops, had become extinct millions of years ago. For that reason, they are called "living fossils" and are often referred to as "prehistoric."
However, frilled sharks have survived by swimming at a depth of at least 700 meters (2,300 feet). At such depths, they are in constant darkness, crushing pressure and extremely cold temperatures. It remains unknown how they have survived when other prehistoric creatures have not.
Since frilled sharks live at extreme depths, scientists are not sure of how many they are. In 2007, there was another rare sighting of the shark in Australia.
Fishers saw the frilled shark alive on the water's surface. Scientists believed it was sick or injured because if it had been well, it would have stayed deep in the oceans. The shark was transferred to a marine park and died shortly.
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