Mysterious Sea Animals

5. Frilled Shark

Frilled sharks, Chlamydoselachus anguineus (Garman, 1884), aka frill sharks, frill-gilled sharks, Greenland sharks, scaffold sharks, and silk sharks are deepwater eel-like sharks that reach lengths up to 2 m and are thought to reach sexual maturity when they are 1.35 to 1.5 m long. They are dark brown or gray in color above, sometimes lighter below, and have six pairs of “frilly” gill slits, heads are broad and flattened with short, rounded snouts, nostrils are vertical slits. Termed a living fossil, this seldom seen shark inhabits the depths of the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. Scientists speculate that it captures its prey by bending its body and lunging forward like a snake while proceeding to swallow its victim whole.