The National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA) in New Zealand has discovered a rare, newly hatched ghost shark.
The alien-like baby with a pair of giant black eyes on its pointed head is likely a species of ghost sharks, also known as chimaeras, which live in deep water around the world.
Chimaeras are similar to sharks and rays in that they have skeletons made of cartilage, according to NIWA.
As for the part of the name that is spooky? Take a look at some footage of fully grown ghost sharks, and imagine being the researchers who first saw these fish emerge from the deep-sea gloom.
A ghost shark is recorded off the coast of Central California. The year 2007, MBARI.
The newly hatched chimaera ended up in the net during a recent NIWA trawling survey in order to estimate the population of another local fish, the hoki.
According to NIWA researchers, ghost shark embryo develop in egg capsule. The encased embryos feed off of a yolk until they hatch. The researchers said that ghost shark hatchlings are extremely rare.
The ghost shark has hatched. Brit Finucci is a person.
Brit Finucci, a NIWA fisheries scientist, said in a statement that the ghost shark has a full belly of egg yolk. Most deep-water ghost sharks are known adult specimen, so we don't know a lot about them.
The researchers plan to run genetic tests on the hatchling to figure out which shark it is. The scientists can compare the neonate to an adult of the same species to better understand how the fish's color, size and diet change between infancy and adulthood.
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The article was published by Live Science. The original article can be found here.
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