The Goblin Shark
Mitsukurina owstoni
One of the most bizarre species of shark, the Goblin Shark was first discovered in 1898 off of the waters of Yokohama, Japan. It is the only known living representative of the Mitsukurinidae family of sharks. Some of their bizarre features include an elongated blade-like snout, jaws filled with pointy fang-like teeth, a long tail that lacks a ventral lobe, and a flabby body with soft skin that is colored pinkish white when the shark is alive.
These sharks prefer to live in deep water and will only on rare occasions come towards the surface, because of this, it is rare for people to encounter them. This has also made it quite difficult for marine biologists to determine how widely distributed Goblin Sharks are in the oceans. Overall, they have been very patchily distributed in the Atlantic, Pacific, and western Indian oceans but are most commonly reported in the waters off the coast of Japan. They are at least known to inhabit depths of around 100 to 4,000 ft deep into the ocean.
Also unfortunate is that what Goblin Sharks prey on is only somewhat known, as stomach contents are recovered relatively infrequently. What has been uncovered from stomach contents has indicated that they feed on deep sea fish, crustaceans, and squid, but they also likely would’ve sunken their teeth into anything they could get their jaws around. The jaws of a Goblin Shark are loosely slung under the head which allows them to be highly protrusible. This allows the shark to extend its jaws three inches out from its face at a speed of about 10 ft per second, allowing them to quickly snatch up prey.
A Goblin Sharks elongated snout is peppered with electroreceptors known as the ampullae of Lorenzini, a sensory organ common to all sharks that allow them to detect electrical fields generated by other animals in the water. The Goblin Shark’s longer snout likely grants them greater range for these sensory receptors, essentially allowing their snout to act as a forward facing prey detector. These receptors would probably aid them significantly in their low light environment. Based on its body form, they were likely slower swimmers. Goblin Sharks can grow to an estimated size of around 16 ft long.