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the web of life in southern Africa

Mitsukurina owstoni (Goblin shark)

Jordan, 1898

Life > Eukaryotes > Opisthokonta > Metazoa (animals) > Bilateria > Deuterostomia > Chordata > Craniata > Vertebrata (vertebrates)  > Gnathostomata (jawed vertebrates) > Chondrichthyes > Elasmobranchii > Galeomorphii > Lamniformes > Mitsukurinidae

Mitsukurina owstoni (Goblin shark) [Illustration by Ann Hecht ©]

Identification

A bizarre blade-nosed, flabby-bodied, pinkish-white shark, fins bluish in life.

Size

To 3.4 m TL.

Range

Off Cape Town, Transkei, and Natal, possibly entire coast; sporadic in the Atlantic and Western Pacific.

 

Habitat

Upper slopes at 360 and 550 m near bottom.

Biology

Virtually unknown. Eats jacopevers, pelagic octopi, and crabs.

Human Impact

None.

Text by Leonard J.V. Compagno, David A. Ebert and Malcolm J. Smale