In our “real monsters” features, we've come across a lot of marine creatures that may once have inspired the sea monster myths told by seafarers over the past few centuries. Sightings of the oarfish and the giant squid lend a lot of credence to those monster stories, and photos showing real-life versions of the mythical kraken and sea serpents keep making the news.
Photo © Citron/CC-BY-SA-3.0
Another example of an ancient sea monster that probably spooked sailors in the past is the frilled shark (species Chlamydoselachus anguineus), which like the species we mentioned above, is still around today – although it's pretty hard to find, as it can lurk at depths of nearly a mile beneath the ocean surface.
Photo: OpenCage via Wikimedia Commons
It possesses many of the features found in prehistoric sea predators, including its eel-like musculature & spine and clusters of needle-sharp teeth, which has led some scientists to categorize it as one of the few surviving examples of creatures from the Cretaceous or Late Jurassic eras – monsters which died out hundreds of millions of years ago.