Caped: Why Does She Have Chainsaw-Style Teeth? (9 photos)

What happens when you cross a shark, a chainsaw, and a viper? You get an ancient horror from the darkest depths of the ocean, where evolution got its hands on it, and then hid its brainchild far away. But somewhere there was a glitch, and now every night a two-meter toothy monster rises to the surface and hunts other sharks.





You get it, right, where did the chainsaw go?

You will hardly ever see the charming face of the frilled shark, or lizard shark, in real life. The fish lives in the waters of the Pacific and Atlantic oceans, but during the day it does not rise above 1200 meters. Believe me, this is for the best! There is definitely nothing to admire there! The slightly open mouth reveals slender rows of trident-like teeth. There are about 300 of them in the mouth. The elongated wriggling body grows up to 2 meters. It looks more like a snake than a fish. But the most remarkable feature is the gills. Long flaps of skin, like a cloak, flutter in the currents of water and inflate like a cobra's hood. You must admit, this is not how you imagine a typical shark.



Snake shark or akumeya?

The fact is that the frilled shark is an ichthyological rarity. The first finds of its family date back 150 million years. It was at this time that terrible lizards took over the water, land and air. Ichthyosaurs, mosasaurs, plesiosaurs plied the seas and oceans. The question of survival became more acute than ever. And what did evolution do?





I outlived the dinosaurs, and I will outlive you!

Some sharks have turned their mouths into deadly traps. A powerful bite - and the prey is cut into pieces. Others have relied on speed. Still others have grown to such a size that they themselves could compete in size with the giants of antiquity. And what did the frilled shark get? NOTHING! The only thing that evolution could offer it was to lie low on the bottom and only come up to the surface at night.



The only thing that frilled sharks have as well developed as other sharks is their liver. It is strong and fatty. Thanks to it, frilled sharks maintain zero buoyancy without much effort. That is, there is so much fat inside the liver that it holds the shark in the water column like a swim bladder in bony fish.

Time passed, prehistoric monsters died out, but the frilled shark remained. And it harbored a grudge against the whole world. As a shadow of primeval antiquity, it rises from the impenetrable depths of the abyss, bringing terror to the inhabitants of the surface. The frilled shark knows that it is weak. And this is its strength. With a well-thought-out strategy, it can swallow prey half the size of its own body! The diet of this ancient predator includes small fish, squid and... sharks. Yes, those very ones that evolution has not deprived of cool perks!



There are so few photos of the fish that you have to show off through drawings :)

Small and soft prey is easy to catch. It swims right into the shark's mouth! White teeth in the deep-sea gloom reflect even the smallest flashes of light, luring stupid mollusks. As soon as the prey approaches, the shark covers its gills with folds of skin and opens its mouth even wider. This creates low pressure, and the prey is sucked in like a vacuum cleaner. And the rows of inward-facing teeth will not let the prey escape.



Cthulhu's girlfriend.

The second hunting tactic is a little more energy-consuming. But it is this that allows the frilled shark to hunt other sharks. The fish slowly swims in the water column, without attracting attention. In fact, it carefully scans the space with the help of lateral line organs, which catch the smallest waves around. Having found a suitable victim, the predator swims up to the unsuspecting victim at cruising speed. In a moment, the snake-like body, like a spring, makes a lightning-fast lunge. The giant mouth sucks in the fish whole.



He who laughs last, laughs best!



The aesthetics of deep-sea horror.

What do sharks do during the day, in the depths, when they are not terrorizing the inhabitants from the surface? They reproduce! This is not a quick matter. Females are pregnant, mind you, for up to 3.5 years! As a result, 2 to 15 cubs 60 centimeters long are born. From birth, they are ready to conquer the ocean depths. But before they themselves begin to reproduce and multiply, they must live at least 10 years!



This baby shark is about a year old. The giant bladder is a supply of nutrients, the yolk. The baby feeds on it in the womb until it is completely absorbed.

The life expectancy of fish is about 25 years. Using simple multiplication, we can determine that in her entire life, a female can give birth to a maximum of 230 sharks - a tiny contribution to the population. But apparently this is enough, since scientists do not consider the species to be endangered. Even despite the fact that frilled sharks are sometimes caught in nets as bycatch. It turns out that it is not the strongest, the largest, or the fastest that survive. And those who know how to wait for the right moment and adapt to even the most unfavorable conditions!