The fish with beak-like mouth, now named Harriotta avia, prowls completely in deep waters of Australia and New Zealand.
Scientists in New Zealand have found a brand new species of “ghost shark”.
The Wellington-based Nationwide Institute of Water and Atmospheric Analysis (NIWA) mentioned on Tuesday that the Australasian Slender-nosed spookfish lives completely within the deep waters round Australia and New Zealand.
The fish, which prowls the ocean ground searching prey greater than 2.6km (1.6 miles) down, has been named after the grandmother of one of many analysis staff.
Also called “ghost sharks” or “chimaeras”, spookfish are associated to sharks and rays however are a part of a gaggle of fish whose skeletons are fully manufactured from cartilage. Different names for the mysterious animals embody ratfish, rabbitfish and elephant fish.
Ghost sharks have haunting black eyes and clean, mild brown, scale-free pores and skin.
They feed off crustaceans at depths of as much as 2,600 metres (8,530 ft) utilizing their distinctive beak-like mouth.
“Ghost sharks like this one are largely confined to the ocean ground,” mentioned analysis scientist Brit Finucci.
The specimens had been found throughout analysis within the Chatham Rise, an space of the Pacific which stretches about 1,000km (621 miles) east of New Zealand’s South Island.
‘Grandmas and grandpas of fish’
Finucci has given the brand new species its scientific identify “Harriotta avia” in reminiscence of her grandmother.
“Avia means grandmother in Latin. I wished to provide this nod to her as a result of she proudly supported me by my profession as a scientist. Chimaeras are additionally reasonably historical family – the grandmas and grandpas – of fish and I assumed the identify was properly suited,” she mentioned.
“Their habitat makes them arduous to review and monitor, which means we don’t know rather a lot about their biology or risk standing, however it makes discoveries like this much more thrilling.”
The spookfish was beforehand regarded as a part of a single globally distributed species till scientists found it’s genetically and morphologically completely different from its cousins.
“Harriotta avia is exclusive as a consequence of its elongated, slim and depressed snout; lengthy, slender trunk; massive eyes; and really lengthy, broad pectoral fins. It’s a pretty chocolate brown color,” Finucci mentioned.
