In 2016, marine biologists from the Monterey Bay Aquarium Analysis Institute (MBARI), Pacific Ocean found this ghost shark within the Hawaiian Islands and off the coast of central California. Up to now, they had been generally discovered within the Southeast Pacific Ocean.
The fish in query is named the pointed blue chimaera (Hydrolagus trolli). Often called the ghost shark, this particular animal lives in nice deep water, can develop as much as 1.2m lengthy and reside at depths of 610-2,000m.
The blue-nosed chimaera is a really distinctive chimaera, normally gray-green to pale inexperienced in coloration, with a pointed snout and simply confused with the large black chimaera (Hydrolagus affinis). The ghost shark is a particularly uncommon blind fish with wing fins, associated to sharks and rays however diverging from these genera 300 million years in the past. In accordance with scientists, this mysterious creature appeared earlier than the dinosaurs, however they’ve little or no details about them.
In contrast to identified sharks, ghost sharks wouldn’t have sharp tooth however solely mineral dentures, so their meals is mollusks and bugs. Ghost sharks usually crawl on the ocean flooring and transfer by flapping their fins like flapping wings.
Their heads and faces include sensory cells, which permit them to sense motion within the water and find prey. As well as, male sharks have particular, miniature intercourse organs on their heads.
Ghost sharks had been first identified in 2002, residing within the waters round Australia, New Zealand and New Caledonia. Till 2009, researchers at MBARI labored with marine biologists on the Pacific Shark Analysis Heart and the California Academy of Sciences to establish a brand new species of ghost shark within the Gulf of California.
Some scientists have additionally seen ghost sharks when the distant management car dived off the coast of Central California. They don’t seem to be positive in regards to the species, nevertheless it would not resemble two sharks beforehand recognized off the coast of California. However after a lot proof, some specialists have confirmed that the sharks discovered round Monterey Bay (California) are in truth ghost sharks beforehand discovered within the southwestern Pacific Ocean.
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