This is the only second pocket shark ever seen by human being was discovered by a team of researchers during a study conducted by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, some 36 years after the first one was spotted off the coast of Peru.
According to NOAA Researchers team, this tiny rare creature measures of just 13 cm (5.5 inches)
long and was caught off the coast of Louisiana, where they were observing
the feeding habits of sperm whales.
After observing a "remarkable pocket gland with its large slit-like
external opening located just above the pectoral fin," NOAA biologist Mark Grace realized this was not just another ordinary fish, as detailed in his Zootaxa research paper.
It belongs to the genus Mollisquama, which is called by a nickname 'pocket shark', not because of its pocked-sized dimensions,
but because of the unique and rather mysterious orifice it has above
its pectoral fin.
"The pocket shark we found was only 5.5 inches long, and was a recently born male," lead researcher Mark Grace, said in a press release, noting that it displayed an unhealed umbilical scar. "Discovering him has us thinking about where mum and dad may be, and how they got to the Gulf. The only other known specimen was found very far away, off Peru, 36 years ago."
This little baby shark was frozen along with a whole bunch of fish in 2010 as part of the
team’s investigation into sperm whale food. They’ve been sorting through
the frozen morsels over the past five years, and have only just now
discovered that alone pocket shark was among them.
"This record of such an unusual and extremely rare fish is exciting, but
it’s also an important reminder that we still have much to learn about
the species that inhabit our oceans," Grace said.
Source: NOAA
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