The modern species of human beings is thought to have started to evolve some 200,000 years ago. This shark laughs in our faces for being neophytes at this whole living on Earth thing. Scientists have found an extraordinary specimen in the ocean that they are calling a “living fossil.” A terrifying shark species with bizarre teeth that dates back almost 80 million years was found by scientists this year and it gives us a glimpse back to an era when dinosaurs roamed the planet.
— Strange Sounds (@Strange_Sounds) November 11, 2017
This beautiful creature was caught off the coast of Portugal in August and they were not sure what species it was until now. Portugal’s Institute for the Sea and Atmosphere (IPMA) determined that the toothy prehistoric cold-blooded vertebrate is a male frilled shark (Chlamydoselachus anguineus). This particular shark was 5-feet in length, but they are said to grow to as much as six-and-a-half-feet. It was caught at a depth of approximately 2,300-feet in the Atlantic Ocean, but it is a deep-sea dweller that is usually found between 390 and 4,200 feet below the surface. The Chlamydoselachus anguineus is believed to live as far back as the Cretaceous Period, when the Tyrannosaurus Rex and Triceratops still were alive.
