File photo of an ultra-rare frilled shark (Credit: Getty Images)
Sea shanties and tales have been spun since the dawn of man about horrific creatures in the sea terrorizing ships and eating crew members right off the decks.
While many assumed that these were just the tales of yore with no fact to them, it turns out there may be some truth to these stories after all.
An ultra-rare frilled shark — which has a body shaped like a snake and a head like a shark — was recently spotted and captured off the Algarve coast, Portugal’s southernmost region, according to The Sun.
Images of the shark have been causing a stir on social media.
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The creature, measuring 4 feet 9 inches, belongs to a species that dates back 80 million years, coinciding with the peak of the dinosaurs.
Humans have come across this shark just a handful of times before, including the first observation in August 2004, off the coast of the southeastern U.S.
Although fearsome-looking, the shark is not said to a threat to people
The one spotted in Portugal waters was captured at a depth of 2,300 feet below the surface. Previous encounters with the frilled shark have been around this depth, though not below 3,300 feet, due to its habitation near the outer continental shelf and upper to middle continental slopes.
Other sightings include one in January 2007 in Japan, December 2014 in Australia and one in Tokyo Bay in April 2017, when the creature was captured on film, according to Japanese news website Mantan.
Other than its habitat and appearance, there is little known about the frilled shark.
In an interview with Portuguese news website Sic Noticias, University of the Algarve professor Margarida Castro said its name is derived from the way its 300 teeth are arranged.
A previous version of this story said that this is the first time that a frilled shark has been caught. This has been corrected. Fox News regrets the error.
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