The Goblin Shark is a rare creature of the deep. It has a long flat snout lined with sense organs that detect electrical impulses from prey. Below this is a protruding jaw of sharp teeth for the actual job of devouring. As shown by the illustration, this creature is worthy of the title, "Gargoyle". Can you see this face staring down at you from a dark tower?
Another strange shark with extinct relatives, it is also called a "living fossil". Averaging 10-13 feet in length, it has been caught at 18 feet. The Goblin is pinkish-grey in color. It stays from 330-4300 feet around the world feeding on fish, squid, and crustaceans. No pregnant females have been caught. Its life cycle is thought to be similar to the related mackerel sharks. Eggs hatch in the mother's body, early hatchlings feed on unhatched eggs, and the young are born alive. Because it is rarely caught, the Goblin is considered of least concern by conservationists.
Sources: "Mitsukurina Owstoni." Florida Museum of Natural History. University of Florida, n.d. Web. 5 Sept. 2016.
"Goblin Shark." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 30 Aug. 2016. Web. 05 Sept. 2016.
Photo: Halasz, Peter. "File:Mitsukurina Owstoni, Pengo.jpg." Commons.wikimedia.org. N.p., 15 Jan. 2015. Web. 5 Sept. 2016.
Model on display at the Natural History Museum, Vienna, Austria
CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1659164