cwnl:

Albino Cyclops Shark Confirmed Authentic

Cut from the belly of a dusky shark by commercial fishermen off the Gulf of California, researchers and experts have agreed that the remains are real; one of less than 50 known examples of a working optic nerve in cycloptic sharks.

Via: Shark expert Felipe Galvan Magana, of Mexico’s Centro Interdisciplinario de Ciencias del Mar, told the Pisces Fleet Sportfishing: “This is extremely rare. As far as I know, less than 50 examples of an abnormality like this have been recorded.”

Researchers said they had examined the shark and found that its eye was made of functional optical tissue. It is unlikely that it would have survived.

Dr Magana and his colleagues will soon publish a scientific paper about the find.

Seth Romans, a spokesman for Pisces Fleet, told LiveScience that the fisherman who caught the shark was “amazed and fascinated” by the attention and was hanging on to its remains.

The ocean is sooo vast. Amazing.

(via ikenbot)