ExtinctZoo - Why Sharks Get Scarier The Deeper You Go

Episode Date: August 27, 2025

If you thought great whites were bad, just wait until you hear about these guys...

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Book on Hilton.com or the Hilton app and save up to 20% to get the stay you expected. When you want savings, not surprises. It matters where you stay. Hilton, for the stay. For years, sharks have dominated our collective nightmares, thanks to one simple formula. Finn breaks water, ominous music starts,

giant shape emerges, and so does our panic. And for this reason, the Great White, i.e. Carcordon Carcarius, has become the undisputed champion of oceanic terror. I mean, after all, these apex predators can reach 6 meters or 20 feet in length and swim at speeds of up to 56 kilometers per hour or 35 miles per hour, while then biting with a force of 1.8 tons, or 4,000 pounds per square inch. Suffice to say, they've earned their reputation.

But here's the thing. If you think the Great White is the most terrifying or even the most bizarre shark in our oceans, you're looking in entirely the wrong place. because the truly nightmare of sharks, the ones that would make even Spielberg question as creative choices, are encircling your local beach. They're instead living hundreds, sometimes thousands of meters, below the surface. In a world so alien, it might as well be another planet. And down there, in the crushing darkness where sunlight becomes a memory and pressure would implode

your lungs in seconds, sharks have evolved into something else entirely. We're talking about creatures with jaws that shoot out of their skulls like biological harpoons. Sharks that glow in the dark, like, well, glow in the dark things, and species so ancient, they make the Great White look like a recent evolutionary experiment. And to really put this in a perspective, less than 30% of our oceans have been mapped, meaning that in some sense, we know more about the surface of Mars than we do about our own ocean floor. So when I tell you that what large blow makes sharks on the surface look tame, understand that even then we're probably only scratching the surface, no pun intended.

But obviously, strange and terrifying creatures exist in every part of the ocean. So let me start by introducing you to some sharks that while still technically in the sunlight zone, i.e. the epipelagic zone, have already started breaking the typical rules of what we expect from these predators. And the first rule breaker worth mentioning is the wabagong, a shark that's as weird as its name sounds, and is essentially given up the whole chase-your-pray strategy entirely. Found along the coral reefs of the western Pacific and Indian Ocean, Wabagongs have evolved into what are essentially living carpets, serving as perfect camouflage in not only the ocean floor, but also in a freshman college dorm. And I mean that quite literally. These sharks are so perfectly camouflaged

that they look more like a piece of coral-encrusted seafloor than an actual predator, which is pretty crazy as they're not exactly small, with some species being able to reach three meters or ten feet in length. And the reason they're able to stay so hidden is because their bodies are broad and flattened, while also being covered in a complex pattern of different colors, complete with dermal lobes, which are tassels of skin that break up their outline to hide them to the point that their prey will literally walk right over them. Well, swim. And doing that would be a very deadly mistake, as wabagongs have an incredibly fast strike speed. When an unsuspecting fish, octopus or crustacean, wanders within reach, the wabagong doesn't just bite, it essentially explodes forward,

opening its mouth and creating a powerful suction that pulls prey straight in. And terrifyingly, they're capable of swallowing prey more than half their body size. Which to put that into perspective would be like you swallowing an entire golden retriever in one gulp. So, you better pray to sweet Neptune that you don't encounter one of the big ones. But if you thought a shark that looks like a shagrog is weird, wait until you meet the swell shark, also known as cephalosium ventriosum.

This guy can be found in the Pacific, all the way from central California down to southern Mexico and Chile, and has developed what might be the most unshark-like defense mechanism imaginable. It inflates like a balloon. Picture this. You're a hungry predator looking for some food, and you spot what looks to be an easy meal, a smaller shark around one meter or three feet in length. And so obviously you move in for the kill, but suddenly you're preyed as something absolutely

bizarre. It bends into a U-shape by grabbing its tail with its mouth and starts rapidly chugging water. Within seconds, this sleek little shark has doubled in size, wedging itself into a crevice, and has become literally impossible to bite or dislodge. And the way it does this is probably just like how you would assume. It doesn't have a specialized organ, rather the swell shark's stomach is incredibly elastic, capable of expanding to hold huge volumes of water, and even air if the shark is at the surface.

But then it does have special valve that prevent the water or gas from escaping, keeping the shark inflated until a danger passes. And then, in what might be one of nature's most undignified moments, the shark releases the content with an audible burp or bark-like sound, before deflating back to its normal size. And this alone makes the swell shark quite the weirdo, but this little, not always a little guy, has another trick up its sleeve, or fin. It glows. Well, technically it biofluoresces, which means under normal light you'd never know, but shine a blue or ultraviolet light on a swell shark, and it will light up bright green like some kind of underwater glow stick. And research has shown this isn't just some random coincidence.

The fluorescence that we can't see is actually visible to other swell sharks. In science has believed this hidden light serves as both interspecific communication and a camouflage helper. And speaking of sharks that have adapted beyond just regular shark stuff, let me introduce you to what might be the most ambitious shark in shallow waters. The epaulet shark, the Australian native, which has decided that being confined to water, is simply not okay. Found in shallow reefs, epaulet sharks rarely exceed a meter or 3.3 feet in length. But what they lack in size they make up for in style, as they're quite aesthetically marked,

with beige bodies covered in brown spots and two distinctive large black spots behind their pectoral fins that look remarkably like military epaulettes, hence the name. But what makes them truly remarkable is in their appearance but their behavior. When the tide goes out another fish are left stranded in isolated pools or forced to retreat to deeper water, the epaulet shark just keeps going. Using its broad pectoral and pelvic fins, it can literally walk across the exposed reef, wiggling from pool to pool like some kind of proto-amphibian. And I do mean that literally, with studies showing that their movement pattern is remarkably

similar to tetrapod locomotion, using coordinated thin movements that mirror the walking patterns of certain creatures, like salamanders. But here's the real mind-blowing part. To survive these terrestrial excursions, epaulet sharks can essentially turn off parts of their brain. When oxygen levels drop, which would kill most sharks in minutes, the epaulet shark reduces blood flow to certain brain regions. And then on top of that, slows both heart rate and respiration, and to such an extent that

their blood pressure literally drops by half, effectively entering a state of hypoxic tolerance that allows prolonged survival without sufficient oxygen. And laboratory studies have shown that they can handle oxygen levels that would be lethal to virtually any other shark species, being able to survive for over three hours in 5% of atmospheric oxygen level without losing consciousness. And this is obviously impressive, but as we descend past 200 meters or 656 feet, we enter what marine biologists call the Twilight Zone. Let me tell you, This is where sharks start to get properly weird. The sunlight that penetrates here is just a mere shadow of what exists above, pun intended.

And the pressure has increased to about 20 atmospheres, which would be like having 21 kilograms or over 40 pounds, pressing into you on every part of your body. And that's just at the entrance. It gets five times worse, literally. And in this alien environment, sharks have evolved some truly disturbing adaptations. Take, for instance, the cookie cutter shark, also known as Isiscus Bracillianus. At first glance, this little shark seems almost comically harmless.

It's barely 50 centimeters or 20 inches long, shaped like a weird cigar and weighs less than a chihuahua. But don't let its size fool you. This is perhaps the most audacious predator in the entire ocean, and its feeding strategy is nothing short of horrifying. You see, the cookie cutter shark is essentially a parasitic predator, but not in the way you might think. Using specialized photophores on its underside,

it produces the strongest bioluminescence of any known shark species. And this serves two purposes. One, it actually camouflages it from larger predators above it, as it helps it blend in with the light filtering from above. And two, which is the real clever part, it actually has a dark collar around its throat that does not glow. So from below, this dark patch looks exactly like a small fish silhouetted against the dim light filtering from above. Meaning that what other predators see is either a non-threat or an easy meal, and thus they move in for the kill. But oh, are they so very wrong? as that is when the cookie cutter strikes.

Using its massive lips to create a suction seal and its specialized lower teeth that form a continuous cutting edge like a bandsaw, it latches onto its victims and performs a twisting motion that carves out a perfectly circular plug of flesh. And the crazy thing is, this whole attack takes mere seconds. Before the victim even realized what's happened, the cookie cutter has vanished back into the darkness, along with its meal. And if the prey is small enough, well, then it will simply eat it whole, making it not only terrifying for the big guys, but also the little ones. And evidence of these attacks are everywhere,

with pretty much nothing being spared. Fish, seals, sharks, including the Great White, by the way, whales, and even humans are known to be victims of this. With studies in Hawaii, for example, finding that nearly every adult spinner dolphin bears cookie cutter scars. And these are no light to love bites, with scientists observing a clear relationship between the emaciation of washed-up whales and how many cookie-cutter shark bites they have. And get this, They've even attacked nuclear submarines. In the 1970s, several U.S. Navy subs reported damage to the rubber sonar domes, that it was eventually traced back to cookie cutter sharks,

with one submarine even having to return back to base after the cookie cutters damaged its sonar equipment so extensively, which also makes it potentially the only shark species, and perhaps species overall, to successfully deter a nuclear submarine. But what makes this feeding strategy particularly effective is the shark's daily vertical migration pattern. During daylight hours, they stay deep, like real deep, up to 3,700 meters or 12,100 feet. But as the darkness falls, they rise to the deep scattering layer, which is a massive daily migration of marine life that moves towards the surface to feed. And by positioning themselves in this moving buffet, and looking just like any other small fish, cookie cutters

get access to a plethora potential victims, like I mentioned. Pretty scary stuff, which obviously is not helped by the fact that these guys have a face that don't. only a mother could love, if even that. But forget a terrifying face. If you want to see what an ancient face looks like, i.e. a true living fossil, meet the blunt-nosed six-gill shark, scientifically known as Hexancus Grisius. This is a creature that evolution basically forgot about, carrying features that have remained virtually unchanged for over 200 million years.

So when you look at a six-gill shark, you're essentially looking at a similar design that once prowled the oceans when dinosaurs walked the earth. And fittingly, as a member of the family, Hexancaday, it actually is more close relatives in the fossil record than ones that are currently living. And the most obvious primitive feature is right there in the name, the gills. As while most modern sharks have five gillslits, this guy has six. And unlike the sleek, torpedo-shaped sharks we're used to seeing, the six gill is a heavy, almost bloated appearance, with a single dorsal fin set far back near its tail, another primitive

characteristic. Oh, and it's also massive, with females growing up to 6 meters or 20 feet long, and weighing over 1,000 kilograms or 2,200 pounds. And visually, besides the size, these guys also have quite the creepy appearance, at least at night. As the 6-Gill's eyes, well, they glow, not through bioluminescence, but with a bright green eye shine caused by a reflective layer called the Depetum lucidum. And most sharks actually have this, but in the 6-gill shark it appears to be especially prominent, with the beam of a submersible's light, causing the six gills eyes to shine like literal emerald spotlights, an adaptation that certainly helps them see in the near total darkness of their deep water habitat. And similar to our cookie-cutting friends, studies using electronic tags have revealed that six

skills are also masters of vertical migration. In fact, they're positively buoyant, essentially being built like underwater blimps, meaning they do not need to swim constantly in order to maintain upward momentum. Instead, they just kind of float upwards at night, all the while expending basically minimal energy. And in fact, they're so well built for ascent, they actually struggle more with getting back down. But once they reach their hunting grounds, they employ a very disturbing feeding technique.

They lower their pectoral fins for stability and then use their saw-like lower teeth to literally carve chunks out of prey to then swallow a hole. But if you somehow survive an encounter with this fossil, we'll be able to travel below the 1,000 meter or 3,280 feet mark, and thus entering the bath of pelagic zone, i.e. the midnight zone, where sunlight is nothing more than a theoretical concept, and the pressure exceeds 100 atmospheres, which is over 1,000 pounds of pressure per square inch. And down here, water temperature hovers just above freezing, food is scarce to the point of absurdity,

and the sharks, well, let's just say that life has found away. And perhaps no shark embodies the alien nature of the deep better than the goblin shark. Mitsukarina, Austoni. I mean, to be totally honest, if you were to design a shark specifically to fuel nightmares, you'd probably end up with something pretty dink close. The first thing you notice is the snout, a long, flattened blade that protruchments had like some kind of organic metal detector. And that's kind of what it is, considering it's packed full of Ampley of Lorinzini,

which are electroreceptors so sensitive they can detect the electrical fields generated by prey's muscle contractions. And in the absolute darkness of the deep, this basically serves like a biological radar system, allowing the goblin shark to hunt with frightening precision. But the snout is just the beginning of the weirdness. Even the goblin shark's skin is not typical, with a not being shark gray, but instead pink. And not a healthy pink, but a translucent, fleshy pink that comes from blood vessels visible throughout its thin skin.

Making the entire shark look like it's basically been turned inside out, which only makes it that much more unsettling. And then there's the jaw, a jaw that puts even jaws to shame. You see, the goblin shark has taken the concept of a protrusive, jaw, which is actually not that uncommon in many fish, and pushed it to the extreme. When it detects prey, the entire lower portion of its skull shoots four like a biological battering ram. We're talking about a jaw that can extend outward by 10% of the length of the shark itself

in just a second. And 10% might not seem all that much, but this is a shark that can reach 7 meters or 22 feet in length. So basically imagine a jaw shooting out over 2 feet or 70 centimeters. Not great. And the speed is so extreme that it creates a sense. suction effect, literally vacuuming prey into its mouth, which makes sense when you consider the fact that its jaws have a velocity up to 10 feet or 3 meters a second, making it one of the fastest

jaw protrusion speeds of any shark or fish. One moment you have this shark letting along with its jaw in normal position, and the next, its entire mouth is launched forward like Pennywise's arm in a sewer. But if the goblin shark represents evolution getting creative of this shark design, then the frill shark is a shark so odd that some scientists consider it a separate evolutionary branch from all other modern sharks. And this kind of makes sense seeing the frilled shark really doesn't look like a shark at all. Instead, looking more like what would happen

if an eel and a shark had a nightmarish baby. Its body is long in serpentine, being up to 2 meters or 6.6 feet, of pure flexible undulating muscle. But honestly, even putting aside its body shape, it's the mouth that truly sets it apart. Open to frilled shark's jaws near confronted with something that seems to belong in the Paleozoic.

300 teeth are ranged in 28 rows. with each tooth being shaped like a tiny trident with three sharp cusps pointing backwards. And this dental arrangement isn't just for show, with them having a very specific purpose. You see, the teeth are designed not for cutting or tearing, but rather for gripping. As once prey enters the frilled shark's mouth, those 300 backward pointing teeth make escape virtually impossible. It'd be like trying to back out of a forest of fish hooks, literally. But perhaps the most disturbing aspect of the frilled shark is how it feeds, is unlike most sharks that bite and tear, the frilled shark is forced to feed more like a snake.

And in fact, scientists believe it curves its body, kind of like a snake, so that it can strike a prey with a rapid, lunging motion, where then it would use its nightmare teeth to maintain an inescapable grip. After which, it would then extend its jaws so that it could swallow the prey hole, being able to gulp down things even greater than half its own body length. And these aren't the only weird things about this shark, as the frilled part of its name comes from the distinctive appearance of its gill slits. Unlike the discrete slits of modern sharks, the frilled shark's gills have frilly edges that give the appearance of a Victorian collar. And then on top of that, like our friend the six-skill, this guy also retains the primitive

trait of having six skills instead of five. But to even this dimerish creature does not live in the bottom of the ocean, i.e. the abyssal plains. Here, the pressure exceeds 300 atmospheres, and the darkness is so complete that many creatures have given up on eyes altogether. Yet even here, in what amounts to Earth's most hostile on outside of perhaps volcanic vents, sharks persist, and the undisputed king of these depths is the Portuguese dogfish, which, unsurprisingly, looks nothing like a dog.

And visually, this shark really isn't that strange all things considered, but it's remarkable in the fact that it holds the title of being the deepest living shark known to science. But unlike some creatures, they get giant in the deepest parts of the ocean, the Portuguese dogfish typically only reaches about 0.9 to 1 meter or 3 to 3.3 feet in length. But to what it lacks in size, it makes up for insure adaptability. Its body is thick and slenderical, colored a uniform dark brown that helps it vanish into the eternal darkness of its habitat, and like all sharks, it's covered in dermal denticles. But unlike those of its relatives, theirs are overlapping and circular, making them look remarkably

like those of a bony fish. But to make these guys even weirder, unlike most of its neighbors who have given up on eyesight, the Portuguese dogfish actually has specialized eyes that are specifically designed to detect by a luminescence. And research has shown that their visual system is optimized for wavelengths that correspond exactly to the light emitted by their favorite prey, deep sea squids like histiotuthus and Tenooga danae. And speaking of prey, the Portuguese dogfish is actually an active hunter, that somehow manages to catch fast-moving cephalopods and fish in total darkness at crushing depths. In studies of their stomach contents have revealed, a diet that includes everything from lanternfish

and orange ruffie to other sharks and even whale carcasses. They've even been found with jellyfish in their stomach, including the bioluminescent Atolla Wivoli, which is basically the deep-seas version of a burglar alarm. As when threatened, it creates a pinwheel of light to attract even bigger predators. And so the fact that the Portuguese dogfish eats these suggests they're either incredibly brave or incredibly stupid, or perhaps just at 3,000 meters down, you can't afford to be picky. So there you have it. From the surface to the abyss, there are sharks that are in some sense more terrifying than those we typically think of as being monsters, and certainly more strange.

We've got sharks that walk, sharks that inflate, sharks that are parasitic hole punchers, living fossils with 300 teeth, and sharks which are essentially deep-sea submarines. And what's particularly fascinating is that for every one of these oddities and their bizarre adaptations, there's a perfectly logical reason behind it. Wabagong's become living carpets because ambush hunting beats chasing prey. Cookie cutter sharks evolved to be oceanic parasites because why kill your food source when you can just take samples? And the Portuguese dogfish conquered the abyssal plains simply by being tough enough when no other shark could do so. But perhaps what makes these sharks so interesting is that while Great Whites dominate our nightmares and our movie screens, it's these bizarre cousins that remind us that nature's creativity extends far beyond what we normally see or know. And honestly, given the choice between meeting a great white or a goblin shark,

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