It can be an exciting experience for researchers when a new species is discovered. With all the coverage we have of our world, it’s amazing to think that there are still a ton of animals out there that we don’t even know about yet.
One of the best places to search is where we know little about – the depths of our oceans, which are, for the most part, unexplored.
During a 2010 research expedition, a new species of lanturnshark was discovered somewhere around 1,000 feet off of the coast of Central America in the Pacific Ocean. You can see it below:
The findings have only recently been shared in the Journal of the Ocean Research Foundation and describe a pitch black shark that uses its dark color to hide in the depths of the ocean where it isn’t easily seen.
But the shark was found so long ago, so why is it being shared today? – Well it takes a while to compare findings to what’s actually known. The scientists couldn’t just claim that they found a new species without carefully comparing the newly-found shark to other specimens of known shark species. Over time, the evidence has become indisputably clear that a new species has indeed been discovered.
The color led four children, aged 8-14 to come up with the name “ninja lanturnshark,” and the name stuck. The ninja lanturnshark can grow to be around 18 inches long, and is called a lanturnshark because of it’s unique ability to emit light in the dark.
It’s also worth pointing out that this is the first of any lanturnshark species ever to be found near Central America in the Pacific Ocean, so it’s actually a very interesting finding.
Source: Journal of the Ocean Research Foundation