A living shark species “from the age of the dinosaurs” has caused ripples across the world after being caught off a Portuguese coast.
The Portuguese Institute for Sea and Atmosphere has dubbed the creature a “living fossil” as it is one of those rare animals that are still alive, despite belonging to an era when dinosaurs like the very-famous Tyrannosaurus Rex were still roaming the earth.
Scientists are claiming the species is 80 million years old.
The ultra-rare frilled shark species has over 300 teeth and jaws, like that of a predator and a snake-like body.
It was caught off the Algarve coast in Portugal recently, by a group of European Union researchers from a depth of 701 metres off the sea. Scientists have named the species as Chlamydoselachus anguineus, because of its gill arrangement with 300 teeth.
The Sun, who first reported the story, wrote: “Professor Margarida Castro of the University of the Algarve told Sic Noticias news website that the shark gets its name from the frilled arrangement of its 300 teeth.”
He was also quoted as saying that this teeth arrangement allows the animal to trap squid, fish and other sharks in sudden lunges.
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