Published:
24 Sep 2022 10:36 GMT
In social networks, the type of species was debated and not even the specialists agreed.
Trapman Bermagui, a fisherman based in Sydney, caught a stunning deep-sea shark with protruding teeth and large eyes. On September 12, the user published a photograph of the specimen on Facebook (belonging to the Meta company, classified in Russia as an extremist organization), which sparked a discussion about what species it belongs to. Bermagui said on his wall that it was “the face of a rough-skinned shark, from the deep sea” who had been captured a depth of 650 meters.
In the published photo, the shark is seen to have a pointed nose, large eyes, and a set of sharp teeth that stick out in a very peculiar way. Until today, the publication obtained about 1,600 likes and more than 330 comments related to its strange appearance.
Several people commented that it appeared to be a shark ‘cookie cutter’. On the website of the US Shark Research Institute (IIT), describe like a small cigar-shaped shark (also known as ‘tollo cigar‘, Isistius brasiliensis) long and cylindrical that can grow up to 50 centimeters, and has a short bulbous snout and sucking lips.
However, Bermagui commented told Newsweek that he was absolutely certain the copy “isn’t a cookie cutter.” Instead, the fisherman considers it to be a ‘dog shark’. “These sharks are common in depths greater than 600 meters. We usually catch them in winter,” he said. The IIT describes to the ‘quelvacho‘, Centrophorus granulosusas a medium-sized, moderately long-snouted, deep-water species that can be found in Australia.
For his part, Dean Grubbs, associate director of research at Florida State University’s Coastal and Marine Laboratory, livened up the debate, telling Newsweek that it appears to be a Centroscymnus owstonialso called ‘rough-skinned dogfish‘ either ‘sapata sandpaper’. “In my deep-sea research, we’ve caught quite a few of them in the Gulf of Mexico and the Bahamas,” he said.
However, another specialist, Christopher Lowe, professor and director of the California State University Shark Laboratory, has another opinion: “It looks like a kitefin shark to me (‘kite shark‘ either ‘seal shark‘, dalatias licha) deep-sea, which are known from Australian waters.” Although he noted that he couldn’t see the full body or size of the shark. “It seems to me [un ejemplar de] Dalatians licha; however, we discover new species of deep-sea sharks all the time and many look very similar to each other,” he concluded.
The IIT portal poses that he shark order Squaliformes It is made up of an estimated 126 different species, distributed in almost all marine habitats.
Although the specialists could not agree on the type of species, the debate showed that much of the ocean is unknown. “The deep sea is another planet down there“, wrote a user on Facebook.
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