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Young World
Look sharp!
COMPILED BY
ROHINI RAMAKRISHNAN
Flaring the gills that give the species its name, a frilled shark swims at Japan's Awashima Marine Park. Sightings of living frilled sharks are rare, because the fish generally remain thousands of feet beneath the water's surface. Spotted by a fisher recently, this 5.3-ft (160-cm) shark was transferred to the marine park, where it was placed in a seawater pool. "We think it may have come to the surface because it was sick, or else it was weakened because it was in shallow waters," a park official said. This serpentine specimen may look like a large eel, but its six- slit like gills help mark it as a cousin of the great white, the hammerhead, and other sharks. Believed to have changed little since prehistoric times, the frilled shark is linked to long-extinct species by its slinky shape and by an upper jaw that is part of its skull. The World Conservation Union (IUCN) lists the species as near threatened.
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