In 2020, Japanese researchers discovered that WhaleShark eyes are surrounded by tiny teeth called dermal denticles. 👀
Does the word"shark" make you conjure up an image of an animatronic Jaws, rolling its dead eyes and gnashing its terrible teeth? While this image of great whites is iconic, there's so much more to sharks than that horror-movie portrayal. The shark world is full of big-eyed beauties, teeny-tiny cuties and a couple of species that might haunt your nightmares . Really, they're a bunch of lovable weirdos. Here are the strangest sharks to swim the seas.
These are pocket sharks, or Mollisquama mississippiensis, a pint-sized new species discovered in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010. The sharks aren't actually named for their size, but for a pocket-shaped orifice near their pectoral fin. Because only a few pocket sharks have ever been caught, researchers don't know much about their biology, but the pocket orifice may be used to excrete a pheromone or bioluminescent fluid, researchers told Fox News.
Pick your monster, Godzilla or dragon — either fits these sharks. The ancient animals had 12 rows of razor-sharp teeth and a reptilian-looking pair of 2-feet-5-inch-long fins on their backs. These sharks may have lurked near the estuary bottom and hunted small vertebrates and crustaceans with their crushing jaws, their discoverers told Live Science.
Unless you're a crustacean or cephalopod, though, goblin sharks are not likely to be a threat. According to The Australian Museum, goblin sharks are bottom-dwellers, staying near the ocean floor at depths of about 3,930 feet . Goblin sharks' creepy jaws extend outward to grab their prey. Their snouts are also studded with pores called ampullae of Lorenzini, which can detect tiny electrical charges coming off living organisms — a handy way to hunt in the deep, dark ocean.
Amazingly, these sharks have remained basically the same for 80 million years, since before the dinosaurs went extinct. They live between 65 feet and 4,900 feet underwater in the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature . 11. Viper dogfish Viper dogfish might as well come from another planet. This species of deep-sea shark was only discovered in 1986, and it's been seen only rarely since. Distant relatives of goblin sharks, viper dogfish have a similar protruding jaw with a nasty set of scraggly teeth. But these creepy creatures are pip-squeaks: Viper sharks only grow to between 7 and 21 inches long.
Rounding out this species" weirdness is the spiky, club-like organ on the top of males' heads. This organ is used to position the female during copulation, according to Lonny Lundsten, a senior research technician at MBARI. Swell sharks live all over the place, from the coast of California to the waters near the Philippines. Their swelling trick can intimidate predators if they're out at night on the hunt; and during the day, the sharks can swell up to lodge themselves inside their rocky hiding spots, preventing predators from pulling them out.
Much of these sharks' biology is known from an almost-complete fossil found in Morocco. They may have hunted by snapping their prey from the water in a quick, deadly bite. 3. Wobbegong sharks What do you get when you cross a fish with a 1970s area rug? Probably a wobbegong shark. These bottom dwellers from the family Orectolobidae are camouflaged with splotchy orange-ish patterns. The sharks even sport a"frill" in the form of sensory lobes that line their jaws.
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