Fascinating shots from Japan.
This video of a frilled shark is circulating on social media in October 2022.
The clip is being circulated claiming that it is an 80-million-year-old, prehistoric specimen.
Within a few days, the video was viewed more than eight million times.
But what does it mean?
The video was created in 2007 in the “Awashima Marine Park” in Shizuoka in the south of Tokyo.
In this context, the Reuters news agency reports that the animal was sighted by fishermen and then caught by park employees, taken to the Aqua Zoo and filmed.
The eerie looking creature, measuring 1.6 meters in length, has been identified as a female frilled shark by zoo staff.
Frilled sharks, also known as “living fossils” because of their appearance, have a life expectancy of around 25 years.
The accompanying text of the video, which attests the animal an age of 80 million years, is therefore grossly exaggerated.
Experts told the AP news agency that there is evidence that the species has existed for 80 million years, but that a single specimen cannot reach that age.
According to Catherine Macdonald, a University of Miami researcher, the animal in the video “is definitely not 80 million years old.”
In addition to ruffed sharks, there are other species in the sea that have changed little for millions of years: deep-sea fish species such as the coelacanth have been around for about 400 million years.
Horseshoe crabs have been living in the ocean largely unchanged for 440 million years.
The case shows how a misleading accompanying text in combination with a sensational video can lead to the spread of misinformation.
In this way, the frilled shark in the video becomes a supposedly prehistoric creature of 80 million years.
How do we check videos for manipulation in the editorial office? It is important to look at the details. The individual frames of a video often reveal whether a video has been edited. We take a close look at each image and enlarge individual sections. Indications of a fake are, for example: lack of motion blur, unnatural shadows or editing errors. The general rule at stern is: Seriousness before speed. We always double-check facts and material thoroughly before publishing them. For this we work with the cross-editorial “Team Verification” together with RTL, NTV, RTL2, Radio NRW.