‘Mysterious’ creature revealed to be ‘very rare’ baby ghost shark found on ocean floor

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shark.The ghost shark was found at a depth of around 4,000ft (1.2km) on the Chatham Rise, an ocean floor off the east coast of the South Island, New Zealand.The ghost shark’s scientific name is chimaera, with other names including rat fish, spook fish and rabbit fish.A deep-water animal, the ghost shark is closely related to both sharks but also rays too.They are cartilaginous fish – with their skeletons primarily made up of cartilage – and their embryos grow in egg capsules laid on the ocean floor.Dr Brit Finucci, a scientist who was part of the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research team that made the discovery, said: "You can tell this ghost shark recently hatched because it has a full belly of egg yolk.”The exact species of the ghost shark the team discovered is not yet known, with further tests and genetic analysis needed to determine it.The age of the specimen makes it a particularly rare find and this will help inform scientific knowledge on juvenile ghost sharks.Dr Finucci added: "It's quite astonishing.

Most deep-water ghost sharks are known adult specimens. Neonates are infrequently reported so we know very little about them.To stay up to date with all the latest news, make sure you sign up to one of our newsletters here."Juveniles also look dissimilar to adults, having distinctive colour patterns."Finding this ghost shark will help us better understand the biology and ecology of this mysterious group of deep-water fish."We'll take a little tissue sample and random genetics.

Then we'll do a whole bunch of morphometrics or body measurements as well, which will also help us assess what species we're looking at.".