Scientists Get Up Close With Ancient Shark Twice the Size of Their Submarine

Deep sea researchers from Ocean X were in their submersible, named Nadir, when suddenly a 6 meter (20 feet) long bluntnose sixgill shark emerged out of the sand and launched toward their submarine. Lucky for us, they caught it all on camera.

A female, the monstrous beast can be seen snapping her jaws at the craft. This was just what the researchers wanted as they had been trying to tag one of these wild deep-sea creatures.

Off in the waters off Cape Eleuthera in the Bahamas, the OceanX team was down to more than 800m below sea level searching for the shark. Unfortunately, this attempt to tag the animal failed.

However, just days later they successfully fired a tag into a male shark. "The team came back to a hero’s welcome and a watch party of the footage in mission control. This is historic for a variety of reasons," wrote Ocean X on their website. "Now that we’ve proven this method can work for the sixgill, we can unlock the world of leviathan deep-sea dwellers and gain important insights into their movement and behavior."

The bluntnose sixgill shark, also known as the cow shark, is the largest hexanchoid shark. It can grow to 6 meters (20 feet) in length and is found in tropical and temperate waters. It is an ancient species that predates most dinosaurs.