Description

The Frilled Shark has an eel-like body that extends up to 1.7 m in length, and weighs an average of 200Ibs. The color of the frilled shark ranges from dark-brown to uniformly grey. The life span of the frilled shark is estimated to be around 25 years. 

 The head of a frilled shark is broad and flat with many teeth. The teeth of a frilled shark have a cusp and two cusplets  The upper jaw has 19-28 rows, and the lower jaw has 21-29 tooth rows. This adds up to 300 teeth in total. The frilled shark has six pairs of long gill slits; the first pair forms a collar, while the extended tips of the gill filaments create a fleshy frill, hence, the name frilled shark. 

The pectoral fins are short and rounded. The single dorsal fin has a rounded margin, and is positioned on the far end of the body, opposite of the anal fin. The pelvic fin is large, broad, and rounded, and is positioned at the tail-end of the body. The anal fin is the same as the pelvic fin. The frilled shark has a very long caudal fin that is a triangular tail that doesn't have a lower lobe nor a ventral notch in the upper lobe, and has a margin equipped with sharp, chisel shaped dermal denticles, which the shark can enlarge. The difference between a male and female frilled shark is that the female has a longer mid-section, and the pelvic fin is closer to the anal fin.