"Living Fossil" Caught Off Japan (WARNING: Contains Video And Pic Of Ghastly Monster Fish!)

Pretty damn ugly, eh?

Japanese scientists were recently able to capture and film a female frilled shark (Chlamydoselachus anguineus). This 1.6 meter animal normally lives about a half mile down and eats squid, fish, and other sharks. The one above may have pursued its food source into shallower, warmer waters, or it might have been sick.

Chlamydoselachus is considered a "living fossil" because it has changed so little over the eons.

CBS has film here.

On one of the sites reporting this story, a reader remarks:

Are there any other rarely-seen possibly extinct creatures we can kill? Anybody? Just give us a heads up and we'll send a team of Japanese scientists over to photograph.

The point is well taken. I considered linking to extraordinary footage of a giant squid that Japanese scientists caught around Xmas, until I realized that the film consisted of the poor thing's death-throes as they hooked it aboard their boat.

In this case, however, the animal was already pretty far gone when it was captured.

And here, as in the case of the giant squid, the video shows that weird Japanese fish-necro thing, where they have someone lay down on a tarp next to the dead shark, allegedly for scale purposes.