# 11.
Basking Shark
Bask in the magnificent glory of the second largest fish in the world— the basking shark
can grow to a whopping 20-26 feet long/ with the biggest recorded specimen/ measuring over
40 feet in size!
What’s most frightening is their mouths alone/ which span up to three feet in width/
in a steadfast effort to remain continuously open while swimming.
The technique allows the beast to filter the seafloor/ and swoop up unsuspecting swimmers/
such as plankton, crustaceans and teeny tiny fish/ teeming to get away.
With tiny hooked teeth and gill rakers, a swift swoop of the ocean floor/ means the
basking shark never has to hunt for its prey.
Afterward, the gills efficiently filter out any water that was taken in during the hunt.
# 10.
Megamouth Shark
Here/ the name says it all.
The megamouth shark sounds ferocious, yet they are one of three filter-feeding sharks/
who only eat plankton.
First discovered in 1976, it has incredibly small teeth/ despite its gaping gob, which
is always wide-open/ while the creature swims along/ hoping to swoop up innocent victims
along the way.
Megamouth sharks prefer to prey on smaller animals such as jellyfish and plankton, despite
their wide orifice big enough to swallow a man whole.
A rare creature that has been rarely sighted over time— only 41 to be exact— the maximum
size of one of these not-to-small swimmers/ was measured at 25 feet.
And even though the name and size of their mouth suggest otherwise, the megamouth shark
is an extremely docile animal.
# 9.
Thresher Shark
The thresher shark is well known for its extremely long upper tail fin/ which notably counts
for half the creature’s total length.
The extended appendage comes in handy too, as the thresher shark uses its tail to smack
and stun small fish.
They love eating small swimmers/ and have been seen tapping the water with their tail
to herd schools of fish into tight crevices.
Thresher sharks generally grow up to 15 feet long, with one caught specimen who spanned
20 feet!
# 8.
Hammerheads
This beautiful beast is renowned for the unusual shape of its head famously mirroring that
of a hammer.
Among the eight or nine different species of hammerhead sharks, the rendering of such
a peculiar shape was debated for many years.
Finally, researchers settled on the notion that the distance between the shark’s eyes/
gave them the grave advantage that they have while swimming; that is, they can see a vertical
range of 360 degrees.
With only a slight turn of their head/ hammerhead sharks can see completely behind them/ and
better yet, they can judge extreme distances by their mere eyesight alone; also, their
eyes have a huge overlap of area compared to other sharks/ which yield spectacular binocular
vision.
Hammerhead sharks differ from other sharks/ in that they swim in schools/ and strangely
enough, can develop a tan when exposed to too much sunlight.
# 7.
Cookie Cutter Shark
While the cookie cutter shark might sound like a cutie, their appearance is as weird
as they come.
These creatures are bite-sized/ yet have the largest teeth of all sharks— as one can
see a fierce row of razor-sharp choppers lining the large mouth of their much smaller bodies.
The name cookie cutter stems from the shape of the bit mark this meanie leaves on its
prey, as the marine menace likes to bite chunks of flesh from its victims.
The shark will then wrench its entire body around in a circular motion/ after sinking
its mighty teeth into a fish/ too big to eat whole.
Another creepy attribute is that once their teeth are shed, they are swallowed and digested
to help strengthen the fishes’ strong skeleton.
Long and tubular, their skin is strange as the entire belly of the animal is bioluminescent—
a feature which allows the cookie cutter shark to glow and attract unsuspecting prey.
Only reaching about 20 inches in length, their bite is as big as their bark— for the cookie
cutter shark will ruthlessly take large chunks out of submarines, whales, and people.
# 6.
Viper Dogfish
With teeth like needles, the extendable jaw of the viper dogfish allows this marine menace
to snatch and consume prey half its size.
These creatures are rare deep-sea swimmers possessing photophores/ which allow them to
glow on their underbelly.
Belonging to the lantern shark family, the viper dogfish can create its own wonderful
light/ with which to see in the pitch-dark waters of the deep abyss.
# 5.
Ornate Wobbegong This freaky fish has evolved to look like
a quirky patch of colorful sea coral.
The ornate wobbegong portrays an unusual body coloration to help camouflage the beast/ while
it waits for its prey.
The markings are also pertinent/ because they help to ambush their prey, which means the
shark can wait in one place for long periods of time/ until their next meal approaches.
Larger prey will be held for several days inside the shark's mouth/ until the caught
creature finally succumbs to its fishy fate/ and dies.
# 4.
Frilled Shark
No frills here— an extremely rare serpent-like creature, the frilled shark has 25 menacing
rows of backward-facing teeth shaped like mighty tridents.
Sometimes a frilled shark has as many as 300 teeth in its ominous orifice, allowing them
to swallow prey/ up to half their size.
The name stems from their incredible teeth/ which extend all the way to the back of their
throat!
Frilled sharks can live at 5,000 feet below the surface/ and grow to about 7 feet long.
The unique ability to flare its neck frill/ has the creature appearing/ rather terrifying,
yet humans hardly see the animal, as they prefer to hunt in the deep, dark depths of
the ocean.
One fun fact for the female frilled shark/ is that a prospective mama can hold an unborn
baby in her womb for up to three years!
# 3.
Saw Shark
This crazy creature looks exactly how it sounds.
With an incredibly large snout, the shape and size of a saw/ this animal can grow to
an astronomical 21 feet in length!
There are seven known species of the saw shark, with the Largetooth variety being one of the
largest fish on the planet.
Their saw-like rostrum serves many functions— one example being electrosensitive pores/
that allow the beast to detect movement of their prey from the depths of the ocean floor.
Their saw-like snout is used both as a tool for digging/ and also to stun prey by slashing
their mighty appendage from side to side.
Better yet, the saw shark can use its snout to protect themselves from unwanted advances.
These crazy critters filter along the seafloor looking for hapless crustaceans and squid
along the way, and while these snappy bottom feeders appear ferocious, in actuality/ they’re
pretty tame.
# 2.
Goblin Shark
This doesn’t sound like a very friendly fish/ and perhaps it isn’t, as the goblin
shark is a deep-water species rarely seen by humans.
Often called the “living fossil”, the goblin shark certainly isn’t new to the
water.
They are believed to be an ancient species even by shark standards, and this class is
the only surviving members of their family mitsukurina, whose existence dates back 125
million years prior.
Possessing a severely long snout, this species of shark has jaws that protrude straight out
of its face/ reminiscent of the extraterrestrial terror from the movie Alien.
This freaky feature allows the creature to open their mouth to a whopping 111-degree
angle!
Due to this, they have taken the title as strangest looking shark, yet they vary in
color from pinkish grey/ to a cutesy bubble gum pink.
Some are translucent to the point where their inner capillaries can be seen— a strange
characteristic which truly adds to their bizarre appearance.
Luckily an encounter with one of these toothy beasts is rare, as goblin sharks prefer to
live much too deep to pose a threat to humans.
# 1.
Whorl Shark
The whorl shark, or Helicoprion— meaning “spiral saw”— is an ancient shark that
lived 280 to 225 million years ago.
Fossils found from whorl sharks/ display spirally arranged clusters of teeth, which has caused
scientists to make many speculations on the anatomy of this crazy species.
The spiral nature of the teeth/ appears to spin straight out of the mouth and down around
the creature’s jaw, making the whorl shark a truly strange specimen.
Since sharks shed fangs, it has been shown that ancient shark species grew new teeth/
but kept their old ones as well.
In some species, such old teeth migrated to the face/ to make room for more teeth in the
jaw; yet for the variety of whorl shark, old teeth merely rotated around.
Scientists do not know exactly where the old teeth on the whorl shark went, but the recreation
here/ gives researchers a decent idea of what this animal looked like.
Which of these sharks do you think is the weirdest?
Leave a comment below and don’t forget to subscribe to What Lurks Below!