Another social media debate is making its rounds. This time, it is to determine the species of an unusual shark that was captured in Australia. It has swollen eyes, exposed teeth, and rough skin.
A Sydney-based fisherman named Trapman Bermagui posted a picture of what he claimed was a deep sea shark's face on Facebook on September 12. The shark was reportedly caught at a depth of 650 meters.
With its rough-looking skin, pointed nose, big eyes, and protruding set of teeth, the shark has a unique appearance.
Out of the Water, Into Social Media
The post received more than 250 comments and close to 1,400 likes in just two days. One user remarked that the shark appeared almost prehistoric, while another was merely astonished.
Many people remarked that the shark looked like a "cookiecutter" shark, which is a small shark with cigar-shaped teeth, a bulbous snout, and distinctive lips.
However, Bermagui had another explanation saying that the shark was not a cookiecutter. It is a species of endeavor dog shark that has rough skin.
He continued to explain that In water that is deeper than 600 meters, these sharks are common. In the winter, catching them is nearly ordinary.
Dean Grubbs, the Florida State University Coastal and Marine Laboratory's associate director of research, added his perspective. He claimed that the roughskin dogfish, also known as Centroscymnus owstoni, appears to be the species.
According to Grubbs, his team and he have caught a few of them while conducting deep-sea research in the Bahamas and the Gulf of Mexico.
Their catch has been found between 740 and 1160 meters deep, which is a little deeper than this report. They belong to the same family as the Greenland Shark, the Somniosidae, but are much smaller species.
Kitefin Shark?
On the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute website, the roughskin dogfish is described as having a short mouth and thick lips, growing to a maximum size of 120 cm, and typically is found at depths of up to 4,920 feet.
A different viewpoint was provided by professor Christopher Lowe, who also serves as the lab director at California State University, Long Beach-Shark Lab. Although Lowe could not see the shark's entire body or size, he noted that it appeared to be a deepwater kitefin shark, which is common in the waters off Australia.
He believes it to be a Dalatias lata, but new deepwater shark species are constantly being discovered, and many of them resemble one another quite a bit.
The shark depicted on Facebook and an image of this shark that can be found on the Shark Research Institute website both have large eyes, thick lips, and a blunt snout. According to the institute, these sharks also favor deep waters, where they can be found in the Atlantic, Indian, and Pacific Oceans at depths of up to 1,800 meters hovering close to the seafloor.
Whatever the species, the shark image demonstrates what a mysterious and diverse environment the sea is. The deep sea is like another planet down there, a Facebook user wrote, Newsweek reports.
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