Fossil records have shown that sharks have been around on earth 400 million years ago.  There are currently more than 1000 species of sharks that are known to mankind with many new species being discovered every year.  With movies like ‘Jaws’ and ‘The Meg’, these majestic top predators have been perceived to be killers and hunt humans from the ocean.  However other than shark attacks or the Great White, there are other shark species that do not carry the normal traits. 

The Walking Shark 

The walking sharks discovered not too long ago in Northern Australian regions and as well as some areas in New Guinea do not really swim around but actually walk with their pectorals and fins to move across the ocean floor.  Rather small in size, usually a metre-long, they feed on small fish and invertebrates.  Scientists to date have found nine species of walking sharks and believe that sharks do have a remarkable evolutionary adaptation to environmental changes. 

The One-Eyed Shark

While one thinks about cyclops as an ancient mythological creature from Greek legends, a one-eyed baby shark was found inside a pregnant dusky shark near Cerralvo Island in the Gulf of California. Another of such ‘cyclops’ shark was found in Maluku Province  by an Indonesian fisherman among the other normal babies inside the stomach of the mother shark.  Initially when cyclops shark first made news, many were sceptical and believed that it was a hoax.  However scientists have confirmed that the shark’s condition is a rare congenital disorder – known as cyclopia – resulting in the baby shark having just one single, large eye, right in the middle of its forehead.  Due to the fact that no adult cyclops shark has yet to be discovered, marine experts believe that the animal is unlikely to have survived in the wild due to its deformity. 

Super Rare Shark with an adorable name

Found in 2010 and stored in a freezer by scientists for three years, researched for another few and only officially identified as a new species and finally given a name in 2019 is the ‘American Pocket Shark’.  Netted by a trawl survey in the Gulf Of Mexico, this is the only one of its species that is captured making this a super rare find in the history of fishery science. This tiny shark species measures only 14cm.