Discovered in the deep: the extraordinary sawshark with a weapon-like snout

With the help of fishers in Madagascar and Tanzania, scientists named two new species of rare sixgill sawsharks

Swimming through the ocean are sharks that look as if they have a hedge trimmer fixed to their heads and a dangling moustache part way along it. These are sawsharks and they use their formidable headgear to slash through shoals of fish. The moustache is a sensory device that helps the sharks detect prey.

Sawsharks are something extraordinary," says Simon Weigmann from the Elasmobranch Research Laboratory in Hamburg, Germany.