Natural World
April 10, 2022 | 2 comments
This is one weird looking fish. Image Credit: Instagram / rfedortsov_official_account
This unusual looking specimen was recently fished up in the Norwegian Sea by fisherman Roman Fedortsov.
Sporting large cartoon eyes, a pointy snout, lizard-like fins and a long tale, this remarkable sea creature is the latest in a series of unusual discoveries shared on Fedortsov’s Instagram page.
Unsurprisingly, since being posted online, the image has attracted a large number of comments with social media users speculating over what type of creature it could be.
Many agreed that it looked a bit like one of the baby dragons from hit fantasy series Game of Thrones.
According to Associate Professor Ian Tibbetts from the Queensland University School of Biological Sciences, however, this intriguing specimen does at least have a conventional explanation.
It is in fact what is known as a chimaera, or sometimes a “ghost shark” or “ratfish”.
“They fly through the water using their large pectoral fins and they generally live in the deep sea, [below] 200m,” he told Yahoo! News.
This one, however, does not appear to be too healthy.
“It looks slightly dead,” said Tibbetts.
“I imagine it came up in a deepwater trawl on a research vessel.”
Source: AOL | Comments (2)
