February 23, 2020
Posted by in Creatures and Monsters, Videos | 8.15am
On the 21 of January 2007, a 5 ft 3in shark was caught in Japanese waters. This may seem quite uninteresting, but the shark that was spotted is one of the very few unique species of shark that have survived without evolving at all.
Called the frilled shark (because of how it flares its gills), this shark has not changed for a HUNDRED MILLION years. Scientists do not know why it hasn’t evolved, and for a while it was even thought to be extinct. When it was discovered to be extant (i.e. still existing) many people called it the “living fossil”. This is because it is the only species in the shark family that completely avoided evolution!
We don’t see frilled sharks as regularly as those sharks from the Jaws movie, because the frilled shark can live as far as 5,150 ft below sea level.
Although they are rarely seen, they have been spotted in certain areas around the world… from northern Norway to France, Morocco, West Africa (where they have the 2nd kind of frilled shark, called the Southern African frilled shark, which only lives in the regions of South-Africa), New Zealand, Hawaii, Chile and other places…
The video below shows you the frilled shark that was spotted by a fisherman in Japan. It was 5.3 feet long (although they can range up to 6.6ft in length), but died shortly after it was moved to a seawater pool in Japan’s Awashima Marine Park.
You can see from the video that it has a body in the shape of an eel and has a very unique formed head. No other shark or fish has that.
Some people who don’t know that this shark is called the frilled shark have named it the red dragon… simply because it looks like one! The first Japanese textual reference to dragons referred to them in several ways. One of the words used to refer to a dragon was “Wani” 鰐 meaning sea monster. This translates to both ‘shark’ and ‘crocodile’.
Most of the Japanese dragons in the texts, like other Asian dragons, were associated with water and being water deities. They were depicted in ancient images as large, serpentine creatures, without wings and with clawed feet…
I have added more photos below…do take a look.
Tsem Rinpoche
Or view the video on the server at:
https://video.tsemtulku.com/videos/Rare-Dragon-Shark-Found-In-Japan.mp4
They have an asymmetrical tail fin and two big fins close to their head...
Does it look like a fish, eel or shark to you??
Unlike a normal shark's head, this one looks like it is almost detached
This is an artistic sculpture done in the 17th century in China. It is based on a Chinese legend of a carp who became a dragon. Look familiar?? Hehe
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The frilled shark is a strange, prehistoric-looking shark that lives in the open ocean and spends much of its time in deep, dark waters. They are an uncommon primitive shark species typically found near the sea floor. Well those frilled sharks look a bit like underwater snakes. Looking terrifying, jagged faced appearance,especially their mouth and having long, smooth bodies that can coil and contort in a serpentine way. They live in the darkest depths of the ocean and is rarely seen by humans. They’ve existed for millions of years, but they’re so rare . The frilled shark is one of the only surviving species in its particular shark family. It can still be found throughout the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. These mysterious creatures were discovered in the 18th centuries by a German scientist in Japan. What more is beneath the ocean yet to be discovered. Interesting .
Thank you Rinpoche for this amazing sharing
It was indeed a unique sea creature. I can’t define that it is a shark or a dragon. From my observation from the picture and video, I found certain parts of the head looks like shark and snake especially it jaw and the eye. With it big gills and the body it looks like eel. This is simply amazing. The existence of frilled shark is really an open eye to most who thought it’s already extinct.
Frilled sharks has 25 rows of backward-facing, trident-shaped teeth—300 in all! No wonder they look scary! Frilled sharks could gestate for as long as 42 months. They apparently can live up to 25 years.
We are far away from knowing the secrets of the earth and it is another miracle that this shark did not change for a hundred million years.Thank you for this interesting article,
Interesting about this frilled sharks . Woa….its a long, skinny shark that looks like an eel and are among the oldest living species of sharks . It is a strange, prehistoric-looking shark that lives in the open ocean and spends much of its time in deep, dark waters. It is named as Red Dragon by the Japanese . Paleontologists have concluded that it is a living multi-cusped shark, that existed as long ago as 380 million years. Even researchers had fossil evidence dated back to million years ago. It is one of the only surviving species of shark family, that can be found throughout the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. The frilled shark has seldom been encountered alive, and it poses no danger to swimmers or divers. Well in no time these species will go extinct due to climate change. Interesting to know there is these creatures frilled sharks exist out in the vast oceans on earth. There could more findings by scientist soon or later. I do believe many unknown species do exist after all.
Thank you Rinpoche for this sharing an breath-taking for us all.
I saw this trending in the social media these few days. Didn’t know Rinpoche’s blog has it. What a treasure trove!
It does look like a dragon ? to me.
Thanks Rinpoche for the pictures and video.
Thank you Rinpoche for sharing this article. This is really an interesting article to read and it is my first time to come across a frilled shark. To me, the shark looks more like an eel plus a cobra head. Not surprising if it is rarely seen as it is a deep sea shark.
With folded palms,
Vivian
There are so many different kinds of animals in the ocean or in the jungle. We are far from knowing all the secrets on earth but we as humans are so bold to kill animals, destroy their habitat, wear their fur, keep them in unbearable conditions and use them in every ways possible.
Discovering such an animal, we could do nothing else than keeping it in conditions that it passed away within hours. I hope that we will learn to respect all animals instead of using them for our pleasure or curiosity. Ok… coming back to topic…
We are far away from knowing the secrets of the earth and it is another miracle that this shark did not change for a hundert million years.
Thank you for this interesting article. It is showing us evidence again on how small we are and how little we know and have influence on.
Earth’s ocean still has a lot more secrets for the scientists to unearth. Even the hot water vents from underwater volcanoes/fissures have a very different ecological system than other parts of the ocean due to the hot water and its sulfurous content.
So, can there be mysteries of the earth above water as yet unknown, especially in the very high mountains covered with snow for most pasts of the year? Can we know the earth to its fullest? Makes me wonder if the myths and legends of old has truth in it – of Loch Ness monster, of the sasquatch, of the Yeti.
Thought by some cryptozoologists to be responsible for certain ‘sea serpent’ sightings, the eel-like frilled shark certainly looks the part!
The frilled shark was first scientifically recognized by German ichthyologist Ludwig Döderlein, who visited Japan between 1879 and 1881 and brought two specimens to Vienna. It is said to be a species that dates back between 95 and 150 million years.
Frilled sharks has 25 rows of backward-facing, trident-shaped teeth—300 in all! No wonder they look scary! Frilled sharks could gestate for as long as 42 months. They apparently can live up to 25 years.
In January 2015, another frilled shark was caught by a fisherman, David Guillot in Victoria, Australia. He caught the fish while trawling for fish at 1,100 meters . The shark is known to live at extreme depths in both the Atlantic and Pacific oceans but is very infrequently caught because its habitat is mostly off-limits to fishing.
Even after modern humans put a dent in the populations of certain sea dwellers, frilled sharks continue to live on, since fishermen rarely trawled near the seafloor. However, populations of frilled sharks appear to be more vulnerable to disease now, perhaps due to pollution, habitat changes, climate change effects on water temperature and other stresses.
As human venture and explore more, we discover more species or species that we thought were extinct, like this frilled shark. Perhaps then Lochness, Big Foot, Yeti etc are just waiting to be found 🙂
This shark is unique. Its gills are popping out like a puffer fish’s thorns. This is not an ordinary shark. This is interesting. It looks like an eel. This is shark is cool. And I like it.
Dear Rinpoche, if the shark didn’t die the scientists might have the chance to examine the shark so that we can understand more of it. And I didn’t really believed them when I first saw the post because the shark’s body looked like it has been edited. But later, I found out that the shark’s body was real. I wish I have the luck to see a living frilled shark.
It is just amazing how creatures like this can still be found on the surface of Earth. It looks really like something that is very old and prehistoric.
It is saddening that it died after it is being captured and moved to the aquarium. But through this it also tells us another fact. It is that wildlife like these should not be kept in captivity in the first place, as it would affect their body very differently. Not only does it affect their bodies, but also affecting their emotions.
This is very interesting! I didn’t knew that it was a shark until I watch the video. I believe that there are more of them out there, we don’t see them doesn’t they do not exist. We will be surprised if we see a dragon flying up in the sky one day, who knows…
Thank You for sharing Rinpoche.
Love, beatrix.
This is such a cool Type of shark. Its such a shame that it had to die, i would have wanted this shark to survive so that i would be able to learn more about it. It is very interesting indeed Rinpoche. I loved watching the video and getting to know about the shark. Thank you for sharing.
Wow this is amazing and cool, i saw this fish/shark/thingy before. I hope they didn’t kill it it they did then oh mani pedme hung.
This is just incredible! A shark haven’t evolve for Hundred Million Years, Wow! I am still thinking why this shark didn’t evolve for such a long time. I wish that I could see this shark with my own eyes and it will be so amazing to take a look at a living fossil. But unfortunately it died after being put in a saltwater aquarium for a few hours. Thank you for reading
Same like human beings. There are many types of people of different skin colours. So are the sharks on this subject. As human beings if there is a crossbreed of the humans. You will find the babies that was born will not be the original. But will be a mixture of both original humans. So it is the same with the sharks. There may be a crossbreed of the sharks with a sea dragon ages ago. Or it may have been so many times it have been crossed and only now it has surfaced with a label attached with the name of the Red Dragon which I percieved are very similar to a dragon.
I found this very fascinating though it made me extremely sad that the frilled “dragon” shark died shortly after captivity. Perhaps since they indicated they typically live in deep water, this one surfaced close enough to be captured because she/he was sick and dying anyway. I don’t agree with captive animal parks such as SeaWorld and Zoos. Animal rehabilitation is good and needed but to capture and cage animals outside of their nature habitats for the “enjoyment” of humans is not right.
Honestly, i find it scary, if i was face to face with this shark i’d probably fainted ROFL!… this is one of the reasons why the sea is not my favorite part of the planet. There’s just too many weird creatures in it!
But it is weird how this particular species of shark did not evolve throughout the centuries… it doesn’t look like an efficient swimmer (or at least it doesn’t in the video) nor does it look like it has a sturdy built. Yet it’s not extinct and not evolved! really amazing @@
I think it looks like an eel even though its head looks like a dragon. It looks fierce but i think its quiet tame as it did not chased after the diver. It is sad that it died when moved to sea water pool
Dear Rinpoche
Thank you for this post. I think the frilled shark looks more like an eel. I’m quite surprised to see the diver got so near to the shark and yet the shark seemed fine with it.
Interesting that some creatures somehow didn’t evolve through the years, and subjected to changes in the environment and genes.
There are so many kinds of beings existing all at the same time… Just like what Rinpoche taught before, that when we look at the whole of existence and the vastness of the universe, the “I” become so small and insignificant,…thinking like this helps me let go of self delusions and put things into perspective. At that same time, this thinking also make me appreciate life so much better.
much appreciation
susan
Eminence, Dharma Prince,
One could certainly see how this particular creature would inspire Japanese and Chinese Dragon images…
In the “Dragon king Sutra” the Tathatgata traveled to the underwater palace of the Dragon King, in order to preach a Sutra on the Ten Virtues to him.
Very Cool, Eminence!!!
Love,
–Tom
Cool.
Dear Rinpoche,
I think you will find this interesting.
Best Regards,
Deepa