🤯 Did You Know (click to read)
The order Hexanchiformes includes some of the most ancient living shark lineages.
Most modern sharks have five gill slits, but sixgill sharks possess six, a trait linked to ancient shark lineages that date back more than 200 million years. Their anatomy represents a living connection to early Mesozoic shark evolution.
💥 Impact (click to read)
The extra gill slit is not cosmetic; it reflects deep evolutionary divergence from most modern shark families. Sixgills belong to the Hexanchiformes, a primitive order that retained features lost by faster, more derived sharks.
Encountering a sixgill is effectively encountering a body plan that predates the dinosaurs’ extinction. In the deep ocean, evolutionary time moves differently, preserving anatomical designs that survived planetary catastrophes.
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