Friday, August 15, 2014

Weird Shark #10: Large Toothed Cookiecutter Shark



I've saved the best for last.  Although I written about these weird little dudes before, this is the first time that I am writing about them as part of the fish population in the Gulf Of Mexico.  The are a member of the order of dogfish sharks, but from their utterly other-worldly appearance, you''d never know it!  The are just plain strange and alien in just about every way.  I mean, never mind those teeth(!)...they are one of only a handful of sharks that emit Photophores on their bellies; they also possess extremely large forward facing eyes and it has recently been confirmed that they can see in binocular vision--perfect for extremely low light conditions, as it is thought that this fish migrates from between 200 ft. of water to depth more than 4 miles down.  Closer to the surface that have been known to bite other fish, marine mammals, even other sharks (see photo of from National Geographic below), and in one confirmed case, a human being.  Their bites are perfectly circular in nature.  This is one shark that has for the time being been labeled on Least Concern in conservation status.  See more at Wikipedia.


Great White with a Cookiecutter bite.

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