Feb 28, 2010

A Bit about the Goblin Shark

Like so many deep sea fishes, not much is known about the goblin shark. But here's a bit of what we do know:

1) They are bottom feeders.
2) The smallest one on record was 3.51 feet. The largest one was 12.6 feet.
3) As far as reproduction goes, they are thought to be ovoviviparous, but a pregnant female has never been captured. And we've never seen goblin shark babies.
4) They are described as having a large mouth and a soft, flabby body. I have at least that in common with the goblin shark.

Thanks for the shark, Ellie.

Photo source: Discovery

7 comments:

Kelly said...

That is very, VERY freaky... that shark needs serious dental work!

Danielle said...

He's just misunderstood!

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Unknown said...

Interestingly they only have their jaws haning out like that when they are dead. A live Goblin shark's jaws are kept in his mouth and pushes them out to snap at prey like a xenomorph or dragonfly larvae.

Kelly said...

That's good to hear! That way no one has to see their ugly teeth!

Dan said...

A friend called me on Skype just as I was looking at this image. Just before his video started streaming, the girlfriend came up, heard me talking, and said, "OH! I thought you were talking to a shark!"

Unknown said...

whoa! fugly fish...