The 10 Weirdest-Named Shark Species

By Dan Nosowitz

Posted on Aug 7, 2013

The bowmouth guitarfish is actually a ray, though due to its shark-like body is sometimes called a shark ray. It's just about the coolest-looking shark there is (science). It's found all over the tropical sections of the Pacific and Indian Oceans, and survives well in captivity--but is relatively rare, due to accidental catch, fishing (its fins are eaten in some Asian countries), and habitat destruction. Wikimedia Commons

Happy Shark Week! In honor of the One True American Holiday (all other holidays are less true, due to lower shark content), I spent about an hour reading about sharks on Wikipedia. Important findings from a solid morning’s research: sharks often have weird names. For example: the birdbeak dogfish. That’s a real animal! Ditto the flaccid catshark and, perhaps weirdest of all, the porbeagle, which doesn’t sound like a fish at all. Click through for more.

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This article originally appeared on PopularScience.com August 14, 2012.