Freaky New Ghostshark ID’d Off California Coast

[The Straight Story]

Freaky New Ghostshark ID’d Off California Coast




A new ghostshark species has been identified off the coast of Southern California, and it’s darker and weirder than any shark we know.

The purplish black ancient relative of the modern shark comes packed with a suite of odd features that give its taxonomical family the name chimaera, after the mythical beast made from the parts of many animals.

“It’s a big weird looking freaky thing,” said ichthyologist Doug Long of the California Academy of Sciences. “They have some shark characteristics and they have some that are very non-shark.”

Perhaps the most intriguing feature of the newly described species, Hydrolagus melanophasma, is a presumed sexual organ that extends from its forehead called a tentaculum.

“They have this club on the top of their head with spikes. People think it’s used for mating,” Long said. “It’s like a little mace with little spikes and hooks and it fits into their forehead. It’s jointed and it comes out. We’re not sure if it is used to stimulate the female or hold the female closer.”

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/09/ghostshark/

[Are_grits_groceries]

1. "Who you gonna call?" nt

[Why Syzygy]

2. Reminds me of a bat. nt

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

3. I hope it has a nice personality and a good sense of humor.

I can see why it might need that clubby thing to score.

[Cyrano]

4. Oh, hell. It's probably just a sand shark that bit a Republican and

mutated after ingesting all the venom.

[mrcheerful]

5. Did Babs go swimming in the ocean again? Last time she went swimming

it was over in Scotland in a place called Loch Ness.