A shark that only has a single eye and albino skin was found by Mexican fishermen and after photographs of it were shared, many claimed it was a hoax.  A Mexican biologist however, has confirmed that the shark is real.  Caught in the Gulf of California, the endangered dusky shark was removed from its mother’s womb.

Felipe Galvan-Magana, a Mexican biologist, diagnosed the fish with a rare defect called cyclopia where only one eye develops. This shark can be compared to the famous green celluloid monster, from Monsters Inc., ‘grinning Mike’.

Pisces Fleet Sport fishing published pictures of the one eyed shark in July and since then, rumors that the pictures were as a result of Photoshop and that they are a hoax have risen. According to Felipe Galvan Magana, a shark expert of Mexico’s Centro Interdisciplinario de Ciencias del Mar, “This is extremely rare. As far as I know, less than 50 examples of an abnormality like this have been recorded.”

This rare congenital disorder is characterized by failure of the brain’s front portion from dividing the eyes orbits into two cavities properly. It occurs mostly within the spectrum of the face and brain defects known as holoprosencephaly. During severe cases it can result into stillbirth or miscarriage.

A kitten was born in 2005 that had one eye and caused a similar stir online. The feline, that was one of two in a litter, was known as Cy-short of Cyclops. Unfortunately, it died within a day.

[Source: www.dailymail.co.uk]