January 29, 2007 From Original Article By Earlier this month,
amateur fisherman Haruo Kanbe stared out at sea in horror — a
monster fish was swimming directly towards him. At first glance
the creature snaking through the water looked like a giant eel.
The cloudy eyes were especially striking. Triangular teeth
flashed inside its open maw. Normally, the prehistoric creatures
dwell between 600 and 1,200 meters (between 1,969 and 3,937
feet) below the ocean surface. Until now, few people have had
the opportunity to come face to face with a living specimen. The
frilled shark has hardly changed for 95 million years. That’s
why it’s considered a “living fossil.” Unlike other types of
shark that evolved later, the frilled shark has six gills on
each side instead of five. The first pair of gills is coadunate
with the underside of the neck; the protruding tissue gives the
shark its name. One of the creature’s most striking features is
that both its upper and its lower jaw are equipped with fork-
like, equi-sized teeth.T