Goblin Shark

• GeneralIt shoots its jaws out like a catapult to seize prey in the dark.
• anatomíaIts jaw sits drawn back inside its head and shoots forward like a slingshot the instant it strikes, one of the fastest bites known in any shark.
• evoluciónIt belongs to a lineage going back some 125 million years and is the only living member of its family, which makes it a genuine living fossil.
• historia naturalIn 2026 the first footage of live specimens swimming free in their own habitat, recorded in 2019 and 2024, was published; until then, for more than a century, the species had been known only from accidentally caught specimens.
• Its jaws shoot forward: elastic ligaments fling them out of its head in a fraction of a second, a protrusion mechanism that is the most extreme known in any shark.
• Its pink colour is not pigment: the skin is so thin and translucent that the blood vessels of the muscle show through.
• It is the sole survivor of a family more than a hundred million years old, and its fossil relatives are known from the Cretaceous: it is considered a living fossil in the strict sense.

Skeleton type

Vertebrate - cartilaginous skeleton (fish)

Habitat and environment

Continental slopes and deep water between 250 and 1,300 metres, in every ocean

Sources consulted: Wikipedia (es): Mitsukurina owstoni