A rarefied Clarence Day - honest-to-god touch shark , an celestial - looking relative of sharks and rays that is rare to chance free - swim in the ocean , has been discovered by scientists from the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research ( NIWA ) in New Zealand .
Found in the deep ocean , even sightings of the ghost shark are rare – so the collection of a neonate is of monolithic scientific value in the enquiry of these over-the-top animate being .
The shade shark begin its life late on the ocean base in a capsule , where it feed off egg yolk until it brood . This specimen was found 1,200 meters ( 4,000 foot ) below sea spirit level at Chatham Rise , a productive fishing expanse turn up off the coast of New Zealand ’s South Island .
“ you could tell this ghost shark recently hatched because it has a full venter of testis egg yolk . It ’s quite astounding . Most thick - piddle ghost shark are know grownup specimens ; newborn infant are infrequently reported so we hump very little about them , ” say Dr Brit Finucci , Scientist at NIWA Fisheries , in astatement .
Ghost sharks , more technically known as chimaeras , are gristly fish that live in temperate oceansbetween the depthsof 200 m ( 660 ft ) and 2,600 m ( 8,500 ft ) and grow up to 2 m ( 6.56 ft ) in distance .
Known for their rarity and strike ashen show , trace sharks are poorly understood by researchers due to a deficiency of potent fogy records and the astuteness they shack in .
retrieve a neonate will allow ecologist to better understand how these creatures start the first days of their life-time and develop into adulthood .
“ From better study chimaera mintage , we know that juveniles and adults can have unlike dietary and habitat essential . juvenile also calculate unalike to adults , having distinctive color figure . Finding this ghost shark will aid us better understand the biological science and ecology of this orphic group of deep - water fish , ” Dr Finucci continued .
