http://www.themercury.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5936,10316299%255E3462,00.html

According to the article this is only the fifth specimen from the region.

Photos of the same specimen but from a different article attached:

http://www.tonmo.com/phpBB/files/Goblin_Shark.JPG

http://www.tonmo.com/phpBB/files/Goblin_Shark_2.JPG

Hello Phil,

Whoa, thanks a ton for posting that. Good old Mitsukurina. I always did like that shark, and that's a damn big one.

Not long ago, someone smart informed me that the "characteristic" protruding upper jaw of the goblin shark was a post-mortem distortion, and they really don't swim around with an embarassing overbite. The Australian Museum (http://www.amonline.net.au/fishes/fishfacts/fish/mowstlett.htm) has a photo of a Japanese goblin shark with the upper jaw retracted. A very interesting brief on Mitsukurina by R. Aidan Martin can be found over at Elasmo-Research (http://www.elasmo-research.org/education/shark_profiles/m_owstoni.htm). Of particular interest is speculation about the shark's hunting methods, which make it sound rather Architeuthis-like.

Hot find, Phil, thanks again.

:thumbsup:

Clem

unbelievably weird and cool...great link!

awesome!! what a catch. very prehistoric-looking. Thanks from me, too, Phil -- great stuff.

Its one of those things you only see in books and dont ever manage to put a size to it... much bigger than i had thought!!!

Cool

any chance you could move this to the general forum? I think a lot of members would dig it!!!!

Thanks for the links, Clem. Very interesting reading.I must admit, the animal was larger than I had imagined it to be too, though I have done a little research and it seems they grow up to just under 4m...these days. Apparantly this animal is so poorly known that there are only 50 or so carcasses that have been studied to date.

awesome!! what a catch. very prehistoric-looking.

There's a very good reason for that, Tony. The shark IS prehistoric! Teeth of a virtually identical shark called Scapanorhynchus are known from Cretaceous deposits over 120 million years old, this shark seems to have had a worldwide distribution. Teeth have been found from the Niobrara sea, so perhaps, just possibly, the animal may have met our old friend Tusoteuthis! It was, of course, also larger and I've found estimates of 5.5m or larger.

Here's a nice artists impression of Scapanorhynchus, and an amazing photo of Mitsukurina from the files at home.

http://www.tonmo.com/phpBB/files/Scaparonrhynchus.JPG

http://www.tonmo.com/phpBB/files/Goblin_Shark_113.jpg

.... between the lines (this really was shocking journalism by the way!!):

Just off the West Coast -- where the shark was caught -- are deep sea canyons. The area, which the [sic] CSIRO is studying, is critical habitat for commercial fish and sharks.

I wonder what 'critical habitat' means. I've a sneaking suspicion that this area is quite unique, subject to little historical bottom-trawl activity, only recently being exploited (explaining the recent find of something quite spectacular). Prediction time (1); if this is a new fishing ground then you might well hear of a few more of these things coming up over the next year. I hope I'm wrong! Prediction (2): the area is being considered for MPA designation (Australians lead the world when it comes to MPA's).

"It is the fantastic co-operation and awareness of local fisherman that make this sort of discovery possible," Mr Daley said.

Guilded lilly!

Phil, great find indeed; your pic, is that a live one or museum display? Stunning stuff!! Looks like the specimen on the pickup is in 2 pieces (you see the fin/tail in the ice on the ground ... sad).

....your pic, is that a live one or museum display?

Steve,

It's a dead specimen. The animal was freshly trawled from a location off Japan but I have not yet been able to track down the precise date or location yet of the capture. The shark has been photographed on its side, the artist has then digitally altered the image adding in the black background as you can see from the original image.

In 1976 another Goblin was photographed live off Japan but its mouth was not extended as with this specimen and looked a lot less bizarre. It seems that the mouth extended in this manner may not be the animal 'at rest' but extending to a bite posture. Perhaps this is why Goblins caught in trawl nets are apparantly found with jaws extended in this manner.

Please, please, no-one duplicate these two images . They are copyrighted images and we don't want to get into trouble.

http://www.tonmo.com/phpBB/files/Goblin_Shark_3.JPG

http://www.tonmo.com/phpBB/files/Goblin_Shark_4.JPG

I'd love to know what the 'spectacular specimen' Steve mentions is!

tastes like chicken, doesn't it???? :lol:
Once again, great pics and great info...Phil and Clem, we are : :notworth:

Ok, per Greg's request, this is now in the Octopus' Den. So for the rest of you, here's a taste of what you can see when you subscribe to TONMO.com... :wink: :heee:

much as I hate to belittle the scientific content of this topic, I'd like to make people aware that you cannot make morning "auto tea" with a Goblin shark :roll:
Sorry but some people don't realise coffee is served hot & get hurt, imaging waking up bleary eyed & trying to take a sip of one of these !
It's not funny Phil :x

Also, if it is a Goblin shark, why is it so bl**dy big ?
Gollum is small & grey, this is grey & 'normous !
No wonder science is going down the pan :grad: :madsci: no sense of scale.

Spartacus:No one has more "leaps of faith and imagination" than you and George Bush...now, we are waiting for the " Shock and awe..."

More details on the recently discovered specimen are available here (http://sussexinlet.yourguide.com.au/detail.asp?class=news&subclass=local&cat egory=general%20news&story_id=325912&y=2 004&m=8). It transpires that the Goblin was a female that had recently given birth.

Spartacus:No one has more "leaps of faith and imagination" than you and George Bush...now, we are waiting for the " Shock and awe..."


Do you not mean 'Shark and awe...' ??????? 8)

I've skin as thick as a sauropod's verruca, but to be alikened to George Bush has quite frankly put me in a huff ! :(

Genetically, I have great variation & nor do I hang my hopes on the existence of the bearded one in the sky & in this dull dull world a vivid imagination is essential in order to survive :rainbow:

off to lick my wound if I can reach it :P

You could use a toothbrush from one of your holders !!! :D
Don't take offense, master S...I only wish YOU were running for the presidency... (hey, Kat could be the first lady...cool!)
That is what you need to do ! :D

like I'd take offence !! :roll: I've retired to play with my airpen !
& Kat would never play 2nd fiddle to a nearly 40 oddball !

with those teeth it looks like it does nothing but go around gobblin' things up

Hi

Nicked the pic from the newspaper site I have however altered it subtly to get round the whole not being mine thing. I've cropped and enhanced, like plastic surgery but less stretchy.

Now the original hi-rez shot would have been cool to see.

That shout is very chimera-like

http://www.tonmo.com/phpBB/files/goblin.jpg

Anyone know how the jaw articulates on these things? That pouch behind the jaw makes me think that these things are going for the ole anything that will fit foraging strategy. That and the bit about the rest of the animal being quite soft.

I can't get fishbase to work just at the moment but I did find this:

http://www.elasmo-research.org/education/shark_profiles/mitsukurinidae.htm

As depicted in most shark books, the Goblin Shark (Mitsukurina owstoni) looks quite unlike any other lamnoid - more like a snaggle-toothed, beaked gargoyle with a carpenters' trowel projecting forward from its 'forehead'. But this unwieldy headgear is actually an artifact of the goblin shark's extremely protrusile jaws.

With its jaws retracted, the Goblin Shark looks considerably less bizarre - resembling an elongate ragged-tooth (Odontaspididae) or Sandtiger Shark (Carchariidae) with an unusually long, flat snout and rounded fins. And therein lies a clue to the Goblin Shark's relationship to other lamnoids. The front teeth of the Goblin Shark are dagger-like and smooth-edged, similar to those of the ragged-tooth and Sandtiger sharks, but lack the well-developed basal cusplets characteristic of these species. The Goblin Shark's rear teeth, however, are modified for crushing, quite unlike those of ragged-tooth sharks but similar to the rear teeth of the Sandtiger. The Goblin Shark's lineage extends farther back than any other lamnoid - some 124 to 112 million years ago - represented in the fossil record by Anomotodon principalis, whose mineralized teeth are similar in form to those of its living descendent.

The 1997 mtDNA study by Naylor et al. suggests that the Goblin Shark's ancestor diverged from the group's common ancestor earlier than that of any extant species. The fossil record and genetic data therefore both support Compagno's hypothesis that the Goblin Shark represents the primitive sister taxon to all other lamnoids. If this interpretation is correct, then the Goblin Shark apparently became specialized relatively early in its evolutionary career.

"protrusile" now thats not a word you hear every day :P

I just knew fishbase would start working once I'd posted :roll:

Here's some pics from there:

They named the shark "charlott" ? Won't even comment on the whole "stenberg" thing...best left alone!
Really though, what an odd beast...fascinating!

Thanks for posting these pictures, Matt.

So, with such odd protrusile dentition, on what do they feed? The thought of encountering an animal whose jaws could suddenly reach out and grab you is the stuff of nightmares.

Melissa

Thanks for posting these pictures, Matt.

So, with such odd protrusile dentition, on what do they feed? The thought of encountering an animal whose jaws could suddenly reach out and grab you is the stuff of nightmares.

Melissa

My guess would be anything that will fit :P

They seem to me to look like they are opportunistic foragers as that flabby looking gut area appeared to be quite extensible. The dentition suggests grab and hold, the subterminal mouth suggests benthic, it really is an interresting creature.