[News] Rare Goblin Shark Discovery in Australian Waters

[spartacus]

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

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

 

[cthulhu77]

You could use a toothbrush from one of your holders !!!
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 !

 

[spartacus]

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

 

[snafflehound@work]

goblin shark well named

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

 

[Infusoria]

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

 

[Infusoria]

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:

Mitsukurinidae: Goblin Shark

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

 

[Infusoria]

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

Here's some pics from there:

 

[cthulhu77]

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

 

[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

 

[Infusoria]

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.