The "eyes" are covered by a thin frontoparietal bone and CHANGES during development (spheres in juveniles, pancakes in adults; https://t.co/8tjHxU2bmj). A recent study suggested that these weird eyes help detect weakly bioluminescing food (

Basking shark ontogeny needs a lot more study. Of particular interest to me is the beak-like snout shape in really young individuals, which so far has only been documented in a single paper. This is a juvenile caught in Japan in 1977. https://t.co/7q82L8eA9l. https://t.co/VziE1uLqIO