Cartilaginous fish · Hexanchiformes · Chlamydoselachidae

Frilled Shark

Chlamydoselachus anguineus

Least Concern

The species is abundant and widely distributed; it faces no significant short-term risk. See full glossary

The frilled shark, frill shark or clamydoselachus is one of the two existing shark species in the family Chlamydoselachidae, with a wide but patchy distribution in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. This uncommon species is found on the outer continental shelf and the upper part of the continental slope, usually close to the bottom, although there is evidence of movements into shallower water. It has been caught at a depth of 1,570 m, while in Suruga Bay, Japan, it is commoner at depths of 50-200 m.

Weight

8 kg – 20 kg

Size

1.3 m – 2 m

Lifespan

25 years

Diet

Carnivore

Feeds mainly on other animals.

Activity

Nocturnal

Active mainly at night.

Social structure

Solitary

Lives and hunts alone, joining others only to breed.

Sighting difficulty

Easy

OceanCarnivore Nocturnal Variable activity Solitary Fish Ocean

68countries 2dive sites

Fun facts

GeneralConsidered a living fossil; it has 300 three-pointed teeth in 25 rows and a snake-like body.
Its gestation can last three and a half years, the longest documented of any vertebrate: longer than an elephant, a whale or any other known animal.
It has three hundred teeth with three points each, curved towards the inside of the mouth and set in twenty-five rows: a trap that soft prey such as a squid cannot escape.
It is a living fossil whose appearance has barely changed in tens of millions of years, and its snake-like body has fed speculation about historical sightings of sea serpents.

Life cycle & biology

Skeleton type: Vertebrate - cartilaginous skeleton (fish)
Habitat & environment: Deep waters of the continental slope, between 500 and 1,500 metres, in the Atlantic and the Pacific
Sexual maturity: 15 years
Gestation / incubation: Up to 42 months of gestation
Litter / clutch size: 6 live young

Sources consulted: https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chlamydoselachus_anguineus