When you think of sharks, usually the Great White, the Hammerhead comes to your mind. But what if I say that there is a new weird species of sharks found in Australia whose teeth don’t resemble any other sharks but look like humans? While this new species of shark, called the painted hornshark (Heterodontus marshallae in Latin), is similar in appearance to other hornsharks, it does have some unique characteristics.
This species of shark was discovered 75 feet below the surface of the water close off Australia’s northwestern coast. The shark has multiple rows of human-like fangs in its mouth and is unlike any shark previously found on Earth. The Australian National Fish Collection examined the species earlier this year. “This order of sharks resembles fossils of long-extinct sharks due to similar morphology, including spines,” stated ANFC fish biologist Helen O’Neill. “But we now know they’re not related.”
“Heterodontiformes have a distinct body shape as well as ‘horns’ formed by crests just above their eyes. They prefer to sit on the sea floor and feed primarily on molluscs and crustaceans,” Helen further revealed.
“They have a small mouth but crushing jaws that are huge relative to the size of their skull and powerful enough to crush cowrie shells.”
According to a report published in the journal Diversity the painted horn shark, while it has similar markings to other species of sharks, especially the Zebra horn shark (Heterodontus zebra), is genetically different from the other nine different species of Heterodontiformes. Zebra horn sharks are usually found in shallower waters located near Japan or Indonesia, not in the deep waters near Australia.
Six more sharks from the same species have been discovered over time, but none of them had teeth like the one found. It has also been stated that one of them was male.
“We prefer to use males for shark holotypes because they have claspers, which are external reproductive organs that differ between species and help us tell them apart,” Helen explained.
“I believe we would have seen specimens of such a distinct species because they are mostly in shallow water, where exploration has been extensive in most places. However, I could just as easily be wrong.”
Though there is more to learn about this particular species of shark, the shark is not regarded as a threat to people
