Now this is an interesting-looking — and incredibly rare — creature. With a bulbous head and 50 rows of tiny teeth, the 66th megamouth shark ever seen in the world washed ashore on Wednesday morning in Pio Duran, Albay, the Philippines, according to Marine Wildlife Watch of the Philippines (some say this is only the 60th confirmed sighting).

The megamouth shark is so uncommon that until recently some still considered it a cryptid, a creature so rare that it couldn't be confirmed by science.

And while the megamouth was first confirmed to exist in 1976 after being accidentally dragged up by a US Navy vessel, it remains "one of the most rarely seen species of sharks," marine biologist David Shiffman previously told Business Insider in an email. (Shiffman confirmed to Business Insider that this latest specimen did indeed appear to be a megamouth.)



This one is a 15-foot-long (4.6 meters) male, larger than some estimates for the maximum size of the male members of the species, though megamouths are some of the biggest sharks known.

And despite the many tiny teeth possessed by Megachasma pelagios, a name that means "giant mouth of the deep," this shark is one of the three that feed on plankton, potentially attracted by its bioluminescent mouth. (The other two plankton feeders are the basking shark and whale shark.)

The shark's strange appearance might look scary to some, but unless you're plankton, it's totally safe.



This is the 15th megamouth to be found in the Philippines, which as a country is second only to Japan in megamouth sightings, though megamouths have been spotted all over the world.

From what we know based on a shark that scientists were able to track off the California coast in 1990, megamouths seem to spend most of the day about 400 or 500 meters below the surface. At night they rise up along with many other creatures, most likely to feed.

Here's a video of a specimen found in Japan being dissected by scientists: