In this world of Photoshop and online scams, it pays to have a hearty dose of skepticism at reports of something strange—including an albino fetal shark with one eye smack in the middle of its nose like a Cyclops.

But the Cyclops shark, sliced from the belly of a pregnant mama dusky shark caught by a commercial fisherman in the Gulf of California earlier this summer, is by all reports the real thing. Shark researchers have examined the preserved creature and found that its single eye is made of functional optical tissue, they said last week. It's unlikely, however, that the malformed creature would have survived outside the womb.

"This is extremely rare," shark expert Felipe Galvan Magana of Mexico's Centro Interdisciplinario de Ciencias del Mar told the Pisces Fleet Sportfishing blog in July. "As far as I know, less than 50 examples of an abnormality like this have been recorded." [See photos of the one-eyed "Cyclops" shark]

Pisces Fleet, a sportfishing company, rocketed the Cyclops shark to viral status online this summer with their photos of the creepy-cute creature. But this isn't the first time that reports of a mythical-seeming creature have spurred media sensations — last week alone, Russian officials announced "proof" of a Yeti, and paleontologists spun a theory about an ancient Kraken-like squid. Few reports of mythical beasts, however, come with proof.

Cyclops shark
The Cyclops shark is an exception. While rare, "cyclopia" is a real developmental anomaly in which only one eye develops. Human fetuses are sometimes affected, as in a 1982 case in Israel reported in 1985 in the British Journal of Ophthalmology. In that case, a baby girl was born seven weeks early with no nose and only one eye in the center of her face. The infant, who lived only 30 minutes after birth, also had severe brain abnormalities.

In 2006, a kitten born with one eye and no nose (a rare condition called holoprosencephaly), created a stir online as news organizations and bloggers tried to determine if the bizarre photos of the animal were real. A veterinarian confirmed the kitten's condition; "Cy," as the cat was known, lived only a day. The remains were sold to the creationist Lost World Museum.

The fisherman who discovered the Cyclops shark is reportedly hanging on to the preserved remains, news outlets reported. But scientists have recently examined and X-rayed the fish, authenticating the catch. According to Seth Romans, a spokesman for Pisces Fleet, Galvan Magana and his colleagues will publish a scientific paper about the find within the next several weeks.

Romans told LiveScience that the fisherman who caught the strange shark is "amazed and fascinated" by the attention his catch has drawn.

It's not the first strange shark fetus Galvan Magana has found; he and his colleagues discovered two-headed shark embryos in two different female blue sharks. It's possible that one embryo started to split into twins, but failed to completely separate because of crowding in the womb, the researchers reported in January 2011 in the journal Marine Biodiversity Records.

Lair of the kraken?
Another recent report of a cryptic creature comes without the benefit of photographic evidence. Nor do the monster-hunters in this scenario have a body to display.    

That's because the discovery is of an alleged "kraken's lair," a spot where 200-million-year-old ichthyosaur bones mingle in odd patterns. Paleontologist Mark McMenamin reads these patterns as evidence of a giant, ancient squid-like creature playing with its food, and he said as much on October 10 at the annual meeting of the Geological Society of America. Supporting his claim, he said, is the fact that even today Pacific octopus, which are also cephalopods like the ancient "kraken," have been seen taking down sharks.

8 Comments

1. 1. David Russell 07:47 PM 10/21/11

   This shark believes that the universe revolves around the earth which is roughly 6,500 thousand years old, prehistoric man lived with dinosaurs, Wall Street is not responsible for the problems we face economically, Cain's 999 plan is the only answer and anyone who does not believe in God is going to burn in hell for eternity.
   
   As a card carrying Tea Partying Conservative that is thankful to BP for the clarity of vision by only needing one eye. He thinks that Mercury in heavy amounts is a required daily vitamin and will chew you apart if you don't agree with him (allowing that he can catch you to start with).
   
   All that said, as a child my grandmother use to take me to the zoo in San Diego and the first specimen displayed as you walked in was a two headed snake. I was amazed that such a creature could exist and my grandmother was the greatest source for my being curious of how the world and life works. The above was just having fun with those who are willing to buy into ideals that have no basis in truth and probably take the cyclops as a sign of the end of the world.
   
   I do differ with Darwin in that I think the greatest evolution patterns were due to catastrophic extinction events of ecosystem break downs which today the above mentioned are working very hard at as we are experiencing one of the greatest extinction events over the last 8,000 years and accelerated over the last one hundred and fifty years by greed and lack of foresight. As systems broke down and feed back systems in place failed new openings were created and what ever had the best opportunity moved in. This would explain the variety of finches much better time slowly evolving which has merit but does not cover the quickness often seen in the real world.
   
   The current experiment of Mt. St. Helen would be a good place to study to see if this ideal has merit.

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2. 2. SteveinOG in reply to David Russell 01:12 PM 10/22/11

   You're idea suggests Stephen J. Gould's "punctuated equalibrium" theory, that evolution proceeds at a very slow pace over long periods of time, but those long periods are interrupted by very short spasms of rapid evolutionary change. Most likely massive natural disasters, or sudden echological collapses instigate the rapid changes.

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3. 3. EEEE4 12:45 PM 10/23/11

   Hmmm... first signs of Fukushima?

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4. 4. David Russell in reply to SteveinOG 05:49 PM 10/27/11

   We have discovered a lot more extinction events some large such as the one 65 million years ago but also some quite recently 13,000 years ago more apparent in the northern hemisphere that may have had more impact on mega fauna than man. But since the last 8,000 years and especially in the last 100 years we are seeing mass extinction similar to the one that took down the dinosauars.
   
   I think entire ecosystems create feed backs loops and if enough feed back loops are removed the system crashes and allows for new or developing species to take over. Also I think we come with somewhat an adaptable set of genes that allows for speciation creation in a fairly quick amount of time once it becomes seperated from the basic stock group ei the differination of finches Darwin experienced in his studies. (I apoligize for any spelling errors the normal checker seems to have taken a break).
   
   There is surely some evolution change over time but I think it is more which species can find feed back systems and protect them better than slow mutations which explains why some species appear to have had no change over millions of years. The one thing I have to keep in mind is the amount of time we are talking about and because it is so vast I would agree that evolution does happen in Darwins model also but remember we as a species are more a regression than progression.
   
   Humans have less muscle mass, more fragile bones, smaller canines, lack of hair and a need of technology to stay alive. All other creatures come somewhat more complete to compete.

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5. 5. wsugaimd 12:05 AM 10/28/11

   Although a rare finding, the "cyclops" is nothing new. Humans have a similar condition called holoprosencephaly which is often a lethal congenital defect.
   http://www.ninds.nih.gov/disorders/holoprosencephaly/holoprosencephaly.htm

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6. 6. Last Ocean Blue in reply to EEEE4 05:52 AM 10/28/11

   Radioactivity is not particularly teratogenic. For that you need chemicals. It's far more likely to be thanks to Deep Horizon, IMHO

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7. 7. Last Ocean Blue in reply to David Russell 07:56 AM 10/28/11

   Humans need technology to survive... and koalas need eucalyptus leaves. And pandas bamboo shoots. And the yucca needs the yucca moth. Show me a species without an Achilles heel and I will show you a chimera.

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8. 8. David Russell in reply to Last Ocean Blue 04:49 PM 10/28/11

   I agree on the ideal we need but I see a suicidal pattern in how we sprawl and we have become very removed from mother earth which in the end will bite us in the rear. As we continue to remove feed back systems and interdependent loops we do so at our own peril.
   
   Your are correct and the one with the most possession is the winner (read Robert Arbrey for a good analysis) but as we continue to throw the earth out of balance the earth has a habit of righting itself at the peril of the vehicle that is causing the harm. Again we are at a sweet spot in the evolution of the planet from the solar systems point of view and in 1 billion years the earth will no longer support life like us at least on the surface. But I doubt seriously in 1 billion years we will be the top of the food chain.
   
   Once we decided that we could do better with technical answers than natural answers and we set aside morals and ethics in the race to be supreme we set our fate and now we are watching the results. I still feel for a creature with our intelligence we have a very myopic view of how we and nature fit together. If all we needed was bamboo shoots I don't think we would be seeing one of the largest mass extinction events in 65 million years.

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