Last week, we posted this image of a shark and asked you to decide if it was real or not.

The vast majority of you voted that it was real, and you're right: this image of a crocodile shark is real! I found it on the Elasmobranch Research Lab' s website.  Photographed by Stephen M. Kajiura, I had thought the shark's obscenely large eyball and miniscule, needle-like teeth would confuse many of you, but once again, you proved otherwise. Since crocodile sharks aren't super-common, I thought I'd provide some resources for you to learn more about them:

• Crocodile sharks have exceptionally large eyes, which is probably for night-feeding or hunting in deep, dark waters.
• They are found from subtropical to tropical zones of the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian oceans.
• Although they only reach about 3 feet in length, the Crocodile shark and the Megamouth shark are sister taxa (more closely related to one another than to any other group), sharing a relatively recent common ancestor. Weird!
• The name "crocodile shark" is derived from the Japanese "Mizu-wani" (literally, "water crocodile"). The name reflects not only the shark's prominent, spike-like teeth, but also its habit of snapping vigorously when removed from the water. Japanese fishermen who have suffered the misfortune of underestimating the Crocodile Shark's reach attest that it can bite very hard.
• Finally, here are a few more images of crocodile sharks.