Rare "Cyclops" Shark Found

Story From National Geographic

Pictures: Rare "Cyclops" Shark Found

Talk about a one-of-a-kind discovery—an extremely rare cyclops shark (pictured) has been confirmed in Mexico, new research shows.

The 22-inch-long (56-centimeter-long) fetus has a single, functioning eye at the front of its head—the hallmark of a congenital condition called cyclopia, which occurs in several animal species, including humans.


Earlier this year fisher Enrique Lucero León legally caught a pregnant dusky shark near Cerralvo Island (see map) in the Gulf of California. When León cut open his catch, he found the odd-looking male embryo along with its nine normal siblings. "He said, That's incredible—wow," said biologist Felipe Galván-Magaña, of the Interdisciplinary Center of Marine Sciences in La Paz, Mexico.


Once Galván-Magaña and colleague Marcela Bejarano-Álvarez heard about the discovery—which was put on Facebook—the team got León's permission to borrow the shark for research. The scientists then x-rayed the fetus and reviewed previous research on cyclopia in other species to confirm that the find is indeed a cyclops shark.


Cyclops sharks have been documented by scientists a few times before, also as embryos, said Jim Gelsleichter, a shark biologist at the University of North Florida in Jacksonville. The fact that none have been caught outside the womb suggests cyclops sharks don't survive long in the wild.


Overall, finding such an unusual animal reinforces that scientists still have a lot to learn, Gelsleichter added.
"It's a humbling experience to realize you ain't seen it all yet."

 

Cool find. Sad that we (humans) ended up killing it.

 

Doesn't seem normal sounds like a nuclear waste hybridization to me but this is very interesting to see

 

thats kinda sad when you think about it. it couldnt have functioned normally with one eye anyway.

 

http://www.3reef.com/forums/bucket/bizarre-looking-shark-found-112998.html

 

This is kinda old...

 

I dunno why, but I kinda wanna call out bs on this one. the eye socket looks like it was just slapped on there to me for some reason.