A tiny newfangled species of deepwater shark has been identified by researcher , and it lives at depths below 300 meters ( 1,000 infantry ) off the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands . The animal has been given the formal nameEtmopterus lailaeand it ’s a coinage of lanternshark .
The Modern discovery , reported in the journalZootaxa , weigh less than 900 gm ( two pound ) and is subject of shine in the dark , a vernacular feature of speech of lanternsharks . Although scientists are unsure if its intent , suggestions have been proposed , such as disguise , practice as a lure for quarry , or as a way for mates to recognize them , like an underwater Inachis io stern .
" There are only about 450 recognise species of sharks worldwide and you do n’t amount across a new metal money all that often , " carbon monoxide - generator Professor Stephen Kajiura , from Florida Atlantic University , said in astatement . " A big part of biodiversity is still unknown , so for us to stumble upon a tiny , raw species of shark in a gigantic sea is really thrilling . This species is very understudied because of its size and the fact that it lives in very cryptical water . They are not well visible or accessible like so many other sharks . "
This raw shark was first give away 17 years ago . When the specimen was first present in a report , one of the reviewers evoke that the specimen might belong to a different metal money . The investigator had to provide precise measurement of the lanternshark and painstakingly compare it to specimen housed in other museum .
" The unequalled feature and characteristics of this new mintage really go down it apart from the other Lanternsharks , " tell Kajiura . " For one thing , it has a unusual caput human body and an outstandingly large and bulgy snout where its nostrils and olfactory organs are located . These creatures are endure in a deep ocean surroundings with almost no Inner Light , so they need to have a large sniffer to find food . "
The specimen has also go ventral flank marks going forward and backward . Apart from housing these marks , their bellies have bioluminescent flank , which permit them to glow . Compared to other mintage of lanternsharks , they do n’t have weighing machine under their long snout , they have fewer teeth , and a unlike number of vertebrae .
scientist are yet to observe a living example of this new coinage of shark , but the find tells us that there ’s a huge variety of aliveness that we are yet to discover in Earth ’s oceans .
