My Friend Told Me About This One-Eyed Shark And I Didn’t Believe It WasReal

An extremely rare one-eyed shark fetus was discovered in July by a Mexican fisherman in the Gulf of California.

Fisherman Enrique Lucero León caught a pregnant dusky shark near Cerralvo Island in the Gulf of California and was shocked when he found the deformed shark embryo along with its nine regularly developed siblings.

The amazing 22-inch-long shark has only one eye in the middle of its face and lacking the usual grey color after it was removed from the womb of its dusky shark mother.

According to Biologist Felipe Galvan-Magaña of the Interdisciplinary Center of Marine Sciences in La Paz, Mexico that it is extremely rare and as far as he knows, less than 50 examples of an abnormality like this have been recorded.

When photos of the shark first appeared in the Pisces Fleet Sportfishing Blog, many people thought the images of strange creature were too peculiar to portray anything genuine. The one-eyed creature looks more like a happy cartoon character than a real shark especially when its mouth is held open.

Scientists thoroughly examined the one-eyed shark, authenticating that it was a genuine birth deformity as the embryo suffered cyclopia, a condition also found in several mammals as well as humans. This signifies that the shark did not survive for long outside of its mother’s womb.

“The Cyclops shark also has other deformities, including albinism, or a total lack of tissue pigments; no nostrils; a bump on its snout; and a spinal abnormality. A mother’s poor diet especially a lack of vitamin A can cause cyclopia in mammals, including people, but it’s difficult to determine the cause of the condition in sharks,” explained Galvan-Magaña.

He and his colleagues have come across many other different looking shark embryos during their years of research. The team discovered a two-headed shark that had failed to develop separately.

“León regards the Cyclops shark as a prize and has already preserved his oddity in alcohol. Lots of people want to buy the shark, but the fisherman says no,” he added.