Gifs of the Deacon and the shark he was influenced by

Maybe a little bit similar, but the shark doesn't have a third jaw that emerges like the deacon, it can only reach with it's mouth to grab crabs and jellyfish from between rocks. a little more on this organism: The goblin shark, Mitsukurina owstoni, is a deep-sea shark, the sole living species in the family Mitsukurinidae.[2] The most distinctive characteristic of the goblin shark is the unusual shape of its head. It has a long, trowel-shaped, beak-like rostrum or snout, much longer than other sharks' snouts. Some other distinguishing characteristics of the shark are the color of its body, which is mostly pink, and its long, [size=200]protrusible jaws.[/size] [img]http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/65/Mitsukurina_owstoni.jpg[/img]

That is what influenced the Deacon. They talk about it in the Art of the Film book. And I don't see 3 jaws on the Deacon. A jaw being the point at which the lower part of the mouth joints with the top of the mouth. If he had 3 jaws he would have 6 rows of teeth, not 2. I think what you are seeing is just the first row of teeth being pushed out a little from the force of the 2nd jaw. Regardless, thanks for the info on the shark. I had no idea what it was called.

The underwater has been home to a fair amount of peculiar creatures. During the Cambrian Era, one such creature [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opabinia]was this.[/url] While this creature may not have any relevence to the Deacon, it's still something fascinating, at least being a hardcore creationist's nightmare, tagging along with, for lack of a more relative comparison, the Platypus (he didn't come along until the Paleogene Era, which would've been hundreds of millions of years after the Cambrian Era). As for the Goblin Shark, it turns out that some people collect their jaws, and there is such a demand for them that there's a huge price for them. I wonder if it'll go up after people watch & research Prometheus.

Very interesting, CrazyDave. I just might look for one of their jaws or actually 2 of their jaws if you think about it lol.

If it is discussed in the book as being an influence why do people argue that fact for their own opinion? I'll have to check my book when I get home.

Its probably because extra jaws are a signature of the classic xenomorph from 30 years ago. this video of this shark is from about 2 years ago, and no one had ever seen one alive before 1985. I like facts too!

@Osiris...Not sure I'm understanding your question. If you mean to ask why I stated that the book says it was an influence then I stated that because it does. Doesn't have anything to do with my opinion. But if you mean to ask why some people say that it's not influeneced by that shark then maybe they just didn't know that Scanlan said that in the book and they feel the shark doesn't resemble the Deacon. What Scanlan said in the book is this... [i]"There is a shark that Ridley cited as reference for us right from the very start that has an entire new jaw that unfolds from the inside of it's skull so the jaw opens and a secondary jaw comes out from inside."[/i]

Why would Scanlan say this? you can easily see there is no secondary jaw coming from anywhere in the video. It is the primary one extending only. Is there different video of another type of shark maybe?

@Engineering more so the second part of your post....they state that is the influence....it's not exactly the same but it CLEARLY resembles the Deacon!

@Osiris...Gotcha. That's what I thought you meant but wasn't sure. @Shawluv:D...Are we looking at the same thing? I know we are but for some reason we see it differently. A "jaw" is where the top row of teeth and the bottom row of teeth join together. There's a joint there that allows the mouth to open and close. Like a hinge so to speak. It's clear in both that there are 2 sets of teeth. They have to be joined somewhere. They have to have a joint or "hinge" so that they can open and close. To me it's very clear. Can we get a 3rd opinion please?

There appears to be a little confusion about what a Jaw actually is. This is because most people tend to refer to the collective description of the upper and lower dentitions together. In humans the upper dentition is seated in the maxillary bone and the lower dentition is seated in the mandible. The mandible is actually the jaw bone. Where the two meet, is at the temporal bone. The mandible (jaw bone) has a protusion known as the condyle, which slots into the temporal bone, this is where the movement of the jaw takes place and is called the temporomadibular Joint ( TMJ ). The difference between humans and sharks is that where our upper teeth are fixed to our skulls via the maxilla, the sharks maxilla detaches along with the rest of the roof of its mouth, and its TMJ as well. Sharks don't have the same temporal bone morphology like us which is what allows that to happen.

@Engineer remember that movie about the giant great white shark? It wasn't called "jaw". The same holds true for the machine for cutting people out of car wrecks. It only has one piece that actually moves, but it's still called the "jaws" of life. There is no point in trying to draw a distinction here.

really cool gif of the shark.