February 16, 2011
Posted by in Creatures and Monsters, Videos | 9.56pm | 2,061 views
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:
http://video.tsemtulku.com/videos/Rare-Dragon-Shark-Found-In-Japan.flv
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
Dear Rinpoche,
I think you will find this interesting.
Best Regards,
Deepa
Cool.
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
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
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
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 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.
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.