Marine experts from the United Kingdom caught an odd looking shark by accident, as they were exploring marine life along the coast of Scotland.
A team composed of marine biologists from Marine Scotland Science were carrying out a survey off the coast of St. Kilda, spotted the creature in the boat's trawl. Even if the team were surprised by the sight of the alien like shark, they immediately weighed and measured it before they returned it to the ocean.
This marine creature is identified as a false catshark or Pseudotriakis microdon that is described as possessing slow movements, classified as ground sharks where this chubby shark is native to deeper waters of the west and east Atlantic oceans. The shark measured at nine feet and eight inches long, weighing 132 pounds.
According to marine biologist Francis Neat, this shark is apparently extremely rare that it has not been seen in British waters for a decade.
This recently discovered false catshark which is also known as a sofa shark appears to have a broad shaped head, narrow eyes and a large mouth with a short, round snout. Some might even describe this shark as particularly ugly, which also resembles a blobfish with large flaps located under the rims of its nostrils.
Neat describes the bizarre shark as a big and baggy looking creature, where it appears almost like a soft, discarded sofa, lying around. The sofa description of the shark is derived from its soft body features that include flabby muscles and a huge oily liver, making up 25 percent of the shark's overall body weight.
This heavy liver allows the shark to skim the surface of the ocean floor. This shark is also a major predator of the seas where it is also capable of scavenging for food since it has small, sharp teeth for the ground shark to feed on small, bony marine creatures like the snake mackerel, cutthroat eel, octopus, eel and lantern shark. During scavenging, it can also feed on pufferfish and needlefish.
According to the Scottish Shark Tagging program, the sofa shark is an extremely rare species that is now a valuable addition to the list of indigenous marine creatures in Scotland. Previously, there were only 32 types of sharks found in Scottish waters, however, last year, there are now 72 species in total, all found lying in the deeper ocean regions.