One of the sharks with such a strange morphology in the world is the goblin shark. Its own name already reveals a somewhat exotic form and that, as soon as you see it, it is scary. Although it looks like a shark out of some fantasy book, it is very real. And it is that on many occasions, reality surpasses fiction and this is one of them. The goblin shark is a real shark that is found in the depths of the sea.
Do you want to know all the secrets about this strange shark? Here we explain everything to you.
Key features
It is a shark that has a strange morphology and belongs to the Mitsukirinidae family. This family is extinct, except for this species. This shark, although it looks pretty hideous, is not extraordinarily large. It reaches up to 6 meters in length and can weigh up to 700 kg. Because it lives in the depths of the ocean, it has had to generate some adaptations to these environments. One of them is to be able to compress laterally to be longer than it is and narrower. This serves to be able to enter the finest rock grooves and catch their victims.
This ability to flatten is accompanied by the morphology of its mouth. It is flattened and quite elongated. It is a very elongated jaw and below it is the mouth that is capable of protruding up to several centimeters. The approximate total of your teeth is between 100 and 120 between the entire jaw. This is how it is divided into 60 teeth in the lower part and about 50 in the upper part. In the lower part it has more teeth since it is the part of the jaw that makes the most effort to grind.
The size of these teeth varies and grows depending on how they are coming out. Thus, they are located in the hollows of the mouth and are totally random. The teeth end up being totally uniform and have various types of thicknesses and sizes.
Fins and color
The dorsal and pectoral fins are smaller and easier to see than the pelvic and anal fins. On the whole of its body it has white skin with small pink spots. The curiosity of this animal is that, when you can see it in photos, it is totally pink. However, this is not so. Currently, the color of shark skin is almost completely reddish brown.
The characteristic color is due to the fact that, having such a thin layer of skin, blood vessels can be seen with the naked eye, giving them this coloration. Some people confuse this color with the fact that the shark is full of blood from its victims. This makes it look even more disturbing and dangerous.
Food and habitat
Like the rest of sharks, the goblin shark is a species with a carnivorous diet. Among its most frequent food we find crabs, cephalopods of any kind, some oysters and even other teleost fish. They are animals that hunt quickly and are highly feared.
They can hunt their prey thanks to the 3 senses it uses: sight, smell and electroreception. Among its most distinctive features is that it is a good hunter without the need to be fast to capture prey. He is rather calm, swims slowly, and approaches his goals relatively slowly. One of their techniques is to move without the least possible movement of their limbs so as not to alert the prey. Somehow the prey fish believe that the animal is dead and that it is being carried away by the current. At the slightest oversight, they are caught between their teeth.
Regarding its habitat and area of distribution, we find that it expands by the Atlantic Ocean both the eastern and western parts, the western Indian Ocean and the western Pacific. Where it is most abundant and can be found is in the areas of Australia to the coast of Japan. Among all the small islands in that area they can be found in great abundance.
There have been some sightings in the United States and in areas of California. Some lost specimens have also been seen in Taiwan and southern Africa. This is summarized almost in all areas of the planet. Its area of distribution is so high since It is not an animal that is limited to a specific geographical area. This makes it to become a more unpredictable hunter.
Reproduction and behavior of the goblin shark
This shark is a rather strange and disturbing species since it becomes a shark that does not hover over just one geographical area. It can spread over large areas at its free will. Their reproduction is not well known since they live in the depths. However, it is known that they are ovoviviparous animals. That is, although the specimens are born from the eggs, it develops in the female's womb.
It is capable of migrating long distances to be able to mate with other specimens during the spring season. As we have seen before, being a species it goes free swimming to surprise prey, they also have to move to find individuals for reproduction. There is not much data on the reproduction, but more and more information about it is already being obtained. To this day it is still quite a mysterious animal.
Regarding his behavior, it is quite slow, calm and not aggressive like other sharks. His strongest movement is the one he makes to exert tension on the animals. To hunt, it chases its prey in the early mornings before sunrise. For the human being it is not dangerous at all despite its appearance. If it bites us, it can cause serious damage. But nevertheless, It is not necessary to feel afraid or in danger if we are near someone, because they will not attack us.
I hope that with this information you can learn more about the mysterious goblin shark.