Rare frilled shark with unusual teeth and ‘snake-like’ head found off Portugal’s coast

Sink your teeth into this.

A little-known frilled shark has been found off the Algarve coast in Portugal by scientists, who were conducting research on minimising unwanted catches in European fisheries.

It’s a rare discovery given the depths in which the shark Chlamydoselachus anguineus is found, living 500 to 1,000 metres below the sea. In this case, the shark was caught at a depth of 700 metres.

Researchers from Portugal’s national meteorological, seismic, sea and atmospheric organisation, IPMA, said it was a “true living fossil,” because its remains had been unchanged for 80 million years, according to BBC News‘ translation of a Sic Noticias report. Read more…

More about Science, Animals, Portugal, Science, and Animals