Frilled Shark

ocean · living fossil · deep sea · shark

A true living fossil. The frilled shark is one of the most primitive sharks alive today, meaning it looks almost exactly like sharks that swam in the oceans millions of years ago. Scientists study it to understand what ancient sharks were really like.

Fancy frilled gills. Instead of regular gill slits, the frilled shark has six pairs of fringed, lacy-looking gills around its throat. These gills look so unusual and fancy that they inspired the shark's name.

Long and eel-like. This shark has a body shape much more like an eel than a typical shark, with a dark brown color and a sleek, stretchy body that can grow up to 6.6 feet long. Its fins are positioned way back toward its tail instead of spread along its sides.

Built differently than most sharks. The frilled shark has a unique skeleton arrangement called amphistyly, which is different from how other modern sharks are constructed. This ancient design helps scientists understand how sharks evolved over time.