frill shark

Open encyclopedia reference

The frilled shark (Chlamydoselachus anguineus), also known as the lizard shark, is one of the two extant species of shark in the family Chlamydoselachidae (the other is the southern African frilled shark, Chlamydoselachus africana). The frilled shark is considered a living fossil, because of its primitive, anguilliform (eel-like) physical traits, such as a dark-brown color, amphistyly (the articulation of the jaws to the cranium), and a 2.0 m (6.6 ft)–long body, which has dorsal, pelvic, and anal fins located towards the tail. The common name, frilled shark, derives from the fringed appearance of the six pairs of gill slits at the shark's throat. The two species of frilled shark are distributed throughout regions of the Atlantic and the Pacific oceans, usually in the waters of the outer continental shelf and of the upper continental slope, where the sharks usually live near the ocean floor, near biologically productive areas of the ecosystem.

Wikipedia contributors, Frilled shark; see linked history · CC BY-SA 4.0 . Plain-text lead excerpt, at most 180 words; no infobox or later sections Retrieved 2026-10-05T02:54:14.705514+00:00. This reference remains separate from the taxonomic record.

Identity & source status

Scientific name

Chlamydoselachus anguineus Garman, 1884

Name authority

Garman, 1884

Common name

frill shark

Rank

species

Accepted status

accepted

Kingdom

Animalia

Phylum

Chordata

Class

Elasmobranchii

Order

Hexanchiformes

Family

Chlamydoselachidae

Genus

Chlamydoselachus

Extinction status

Not supplied by this source

Source habitat flags: Marine: yes · Freshwater: no · Terrestrial: no. These do not form a complete habitat description.

Classification family tree

Nested taxonomic groups from the source. This is not a direct-ancestor chain, a dated evolutionary tree or a phylogenetic reconstruction.

1. domainEukaryota (Chatton, 1925) Whittaker & Margulis, 1978
2. kingdomAnimalia
3. phylumChordata
4. subphylumVertebrata
5. infraphylumGnathostomata
6. parvphylumChondrichthyes
7. classElasmobranchii
8. subclassNeoselachii
9. infraclassSelachii
10. superorderSqualomorphi
11. orderHexanchiformes Compagno, 1973
12. familyChlamydoselachidae Garman, 1884
13. genusChlamydoselachus Garman, 1884
14. speciesChlamydoselachus anguineus Garman, 1884

Close classified relatives

These entries share the source’s genus, Chlamydoselachus. They are not necessarily the closest relatives established by molecular evidence.

Browse 2 records assigned to Chlamydoselachidae.

Names & synonyms

Names explicitly linked to this accepted taxon in the source. Synonymy can change with revision.

Source literature & publication evidence

References attached to this source record, including nomenclatural citations where supplied. This is a selected bibliography; abbreviated citations remain in the source’s form.

1. Garman, S. (1884). An extraordinary shark. Bulletin of the Essex Institute, 16: 47–55. Source fields: Taxon.tsv dwc:namePublishedIn, Taxon.tsv dcterms:references

Origins, evidence & remaining research

Name authority and publication references document nomenclature where the source supplies it. They do not establish evolutionary origins or the earliest fossil occurrence.

Specimen-level evidence, morphology, ecological research, phylogenetic studies, a comprehensive bibliography and a located literary passage have not yet been compiled for this record. A suitable sourced image remains to be added.

Dataset citation & attribution

This exact taxon in ChecklistBank · Catalogue of Life 2026-09-11

Catalogue of Life 2026-09-11; dataset 316321; doi:10.48580/dgz5n. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ . Retrieved 5 October 2026.

Stable key: col:5Y8T6. Classification follows source parent identifiers. English common names may vary by region.