This Shark is A Lie

Sharks and other deep sea animals are often misrepresented in photos and film. I thought of a few more examples: hagfish, cookiecutter sharks, and blobfish. Can you think of any more?

Specimen use made possible by the University of Michigan Museum of Zoology

[robinthrush]

Once I learned about the blobfish, that photo never failed to make me sad. That's a horrific image when you think about it.

[mmmok]

i remember reading a book about deep sea creatures when i was like 8 and how ugly the hagfish was stuck with me. cookie cutter sharks were in it too and their teeth were all messed up in the pictures. i think i would have liked to know that these things weren’t actually that scary, but just horribly mutilated or disfigured from the pressure differences

[mrd-znqc]

Finally somebody with a audience talking about #blobfishjustice

[secretsecret]

i like to think he doesn’t change gloves or recorded the talking and the touching the specimens at different times so i crack up when he touches his mouth 🤣🤣

[bin]

"This is a cookie cutter shark: 'YAAAH'" Jesus christ, that was hilarious

[katanap.]

They're really out here turning normal fish into fantasy monsters. Didn't realize how common this was. Misinformation does seem problematic when using an altered real creature as an example as opposed to a clearly fictional piece of art. Thanks for reminding me to take these sorts of photos with a grain of salt, especially if I haven't done any research!

[devonmartin]

Aliens don't use Facebook, they use Myspace!

[spyguy]

I like cookie cutter sharks because of the story of them accidentally interfering in the Cold War. They used to stick to submarine radars and cause anomalies and they were only discovered when a Russian sub surfaced with one still attached.

[Eli-akad]

It’s funny with the blobfish thing is that I always knew that they didn’t look like that in their natural environment. However the one thing I never knew was how they actually looked when swimming and how different that is from the images a lot of people have seen. It’s even crazier because I’ve seen blob fish in undersea showcase videos but didn’t know it was a blobfish at the time

[CobaltHanna]

My feeling is that nature is so cool regardless so there's no reason to alter it to get people interested. Your own content being an example of that. Plus what makes science exciting is that it's literally understanding information as accurately as possible which this goes against. That being said when you do know that an animal has been altered it's fascinating to hear about and I really enjoyed this video.

[rodrigomonsueth]

The pressure issue is very interesting, I did a simple 7 meter dive, and it was enough for me to feel pain in my left ear for 3 days

[fmwild]

That's a centroscymnus owstonii, a kind of dogfish of the family somniosidae (the same of the greenland shark). This shark is commonly known as rough-skin dogfish

[sassafrassanid]

Cookiecutter shark in photos: 😬
Cookiecutter shark in real: 🙂

[cgunawardena]

This was insightful, it didnt occur to me that deep sea creatures might "decompress"

[delphananima]

Happens to goblin sharks too to an extreme degree 😭. The fact that it only looks 'scary' when catching prey and yet its been put in the cultural consciousness to the point various game models even represent them all constantly clamping their jaws. So jarring when goblins are actually veryyy cute pinnochio dorks most of the time.

[darkdeifan]

the "This is a cookie cutter shark, " moment, killed me, great representation, love it.
Also, even knowing about blobfish decompression I've never looked up what they actually look like and surelly didn't expect that, now i'm more curious, going to search more info on them.

[apertureonline]

I think the hagfish specifically has the ability to do that. It’s not like breaking any bones, but it’s also not normal. The shark part is hard because thats like 2-3 species with the same mouth issue

[MDA]

Apreciated an educatiobal video about being skeptical of the apearence of aledged deep sea creatures specialy outside theyre main environment

[ziltoid]

Bro Aliens don't use Facebook. They use Spacebook.

[Jaeistasty]

him: *literally talking about sharks*
Also him: *”yaaah”*