A bizarre deep-sea shark with bulging eyes and an unsettling, human-like smile was recently brought up from the depths off the coast of Australia. Shark experts don’t know what species this creepy creature belongs to, adding to the mystery surrounding this unusual specimen.
A deep-sea fisherman known online as Trapman Bermagui caught the mysterious shark at a depth of around 650 meters off the coast of New South Wales, Australia. The fisherman then shared a snapshot of the deep-sea specimen on Facebook (opens in a new tab) on September 12. The image shows the rough, sandpaper-like skin of the dead shark, the large pointed snout, the large bulging eyes, and the visible pearl white.
The shark’s unusual features quickly attracted the attention of other Facebook users, who were either amazed or terrified by the creature. One commentator wrote that the specimen was “the stuff of nightmares”, while another wrote that the creature’s “evil smile” gave them “great chills”. Other people have joked about the animal’s appearance, assuming the shark was wearing “false teeth” or smiling after the braces were finally removed.
Commentators also speculated which species the shark belonged to. The most common hypothesis was that the specimen was a cookie cutter shark (Isistius brasiliensis), named for the characteristic bite marks it leaves on larger animals. Other hypotheses were a goblin shark (Mitsukurina owstoni) or a species of lantern shark.
However, Trapman Bermagui disagreed with online commentators. “It’s not a cookie cutter at all,” the fisherman told Newsweek (opens in a new tab). “It is a rough-skinned shark, also known as a type of shark.” Dean Grubbs, a marine biologist and shark expert at Florida State University, has come to a different conclusion. Grubbs suspected that the dead shark was a dogfish (Centroscymnus owstonii), a species of dormant shark from the same family as the Greenland shark (Somniosus microcephalus).
