Angel Shark
An Angel Shark doesn’t really look like what you would probably picture when you hear the word shark. This shark is very flat, with extended pectoral fins that make it look more like a ray or a skate than a shark. It’s because these extended fins look like wings that the fish is called an Angel Shark. However, the fins are not attached to the head as they are with fish in the ray family.
An Angel Shark can be just about anywhere in the world, in either the Atlantic Ocean or the Pacific Ocean. They live on the floor of the ocean where they lie in wait to ambush unsuspecting fish swimming by. Because of their colors--gray, white, black, and brown--sometimes with red spots, they are camouflaged by blending into the ocean floor. They catch their dinner by burying themselves in the sand with only their eyes sticking out, and attacking prey from below. It is believed that they can lie there on the bottom of the ocean in waiting for several days.
The prey that the Angel Shark is seeking is usually halibut, flounder, mollusks or crustaceans. While many sharks use other senses to recognize food, the Angel Shark uses its vision, even if it is night. The shark is reported to have a ferocious bite but has only bitten humans when they have unknowingly disturbed its territory.
The average size of an Angel Shark is five feet and they weigh around sixty pounds. The largest shark of this breed ever found weighed 170 pounds. Their teeth are triangular-shaped, much like those of the Great White Shark. They have barbels on each side of mouth which helps them sense chemical reactions in the water.
An Angel Shark breathes through gill slits on the sides of its head. However, unlike many sharks, it does not have to be in constant forward swimming motion to keep the gill slits covered with water. The Angel Shark can rest on the bottom of the ocean, breathing by pulling water across the gills with its muscles. It has a tube, called a spiracle, behind its eyes that pulls the water through the gills when its mouth is closed.
The Angel Shark has a tail that is an inversion of what you would normally expect to see on a shark. The tail fin, or caudal fin as it is named, on sharks usually has a top lobe that is longer than the bottom one. With this particular shark, the opposite is true. They have a bottom lobe that is longer than their top lobe. Scientists believe that this inversion may be what enables them to accelerate fast upward from the bottom of the ocean floor to surprise their prey.