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  • 2021-07-20 (xsd:date)
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  • Is This an 80-Million-Year-Old Shark? (en)
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  • In July 2021, a video was circulated on social media that supposedly showed an 80-million-year-old shark discovered off the coast of Japan: This is a genuine video of a frilled shark or Chlamydoselachus anguineus. However, the wording of this caption left some people with the wrong impression of this shark's age. This shark is not 80 million years old. Not even close. While the exact lifespan of a frilled shark is unknown (these sharks are difficult to study as they live some 2,000 feet below the ocean's surface), one estimate holds that this species lives for about 25 years. So why the huge discrepancy? The 80 million figure refers to how long this species' ancestors, not this individual shark, have been swimming in Earth's deep waters. The frilled shark is often referred to as a living fossil because its lineage can be traced back more than 80 million years. National Geographic explained: While today's frilled sharks resemble the fossils of their 80 million-year-old ancestors, the Smithsonian Institution's Ocean Initiative writes that they aren't entirely identical: The above-displayed video was taken in 2007 off the coast of Japan by a staff member of the Awashima Marine Park. This living fossil was about 5 feet long and died shortly after it was caught. Reuters reported at the time: Here's a video report about the 2007 sighting: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xry342A-utI&t=84s See also from Snopes: (en)
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