The Terrible Dogfish is a dogfish-like sea monster, which appears in Carlo Collodi's 1883 book The Adventures of Pinocchio as the final antagonist. It is described as being larger than a five-story building, a kilometer long and sporting three rows of teeth in a mouth that can easily accommodate a train. So fearsome is its reputation, that in Chapter XXXIV, it is revealed that the Dogfish is nicknamed "The Attila of fish and fishermen".
Il Terribile Pescecane swallows Pinocchio, as drawn by Enrico Mazzanti
Monstro as portrayed in Disney's Pinocchio
Pinocchio carries Geppetto on his back and swims out of its mouth. A 1902 drawing by Carlo Chiostri.
In The Adventures of Pinocchio
Sea monsters are beings from folklore believed to dwell in the sea and are often imagined to be of immense size. Marine monsters can take many forms, including sea dragons, sea serpents, or tentacled beasts. They can be slimy and scaly and are often pictured threatening ships or spouting jets of water. The definition of a "monster" is subjective; further, some sea monsters may have been based on scientifically accepted creatures, such as whales and types of giant and colossal squid.
Picture taken from a Hetzel copy of Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea.
Plate c. 1544 depicting various sea monsters; compiled from the Carta marina.
Sea serpent reported by Hans Egede, Bishop of Greenland, in 1734
The St. Augustine Monster was a carcass that washed ashore near St. Augustine, Florida in 1896. It was initially postulated to be a gigantic octopus.