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Mystery about mysterious deep-sea eggs solved: Behind it is a ghost shark with white eyes

2023-05-25T12:29:29.018Z

Highlights: Mysterious eggs with a special structure led to a new species of shark. The eggs were deposited in the deep sea by a "ghost shark" The ghost shark has "creepy" white eyes and a flattened, elongated snout. It is a subtype of the species Apristurus ovicorrugatus, which lives off the coast of Australia.. Mysterious eggs puzzled scientists for years. Now it is finally clear: They were deposited by a 'ghost shark' after more than ten years of searching.



Mysterious eggs puzzled scientists for years. Now it is finally clear: They were deposited in the deep sea by a "ghost shark".

Gascoyne Marine Park (Australia) – Two-thirds of all living things in the deep sea are unknown to humans. Mysterious sea creatures are numerous. One of them has now come into the light of science and has also been given a name. Apristurus ovicorrugatus is the name of the newly discovered ghost shark with the creepy, white eyes that was found off the coast of Australia.

Years ago, its eggs were discovered. For years, researchers have puzzled over which animal they might have deposited in the deep sea. The lengthy search paid off twice as much for the researchers, as they discovered a new species. Time and again, researchers succeed in making such finds, which reward years of often tough work.

New "ghost shark" discovered in Australia – after more than ten years of searching

In this case, too, the joy of the scientists must have been correspondingly great when, after more than ten years, they finally looked into the bright white eyes of the ghostly deep-sea creature they had been looking for for so long in the vastness of the sea. Because no one had that before them.

The "ghost shark" Apristurus ovicorrugatus is a previously unknown species. They stand out above all for their unique appearance: In addition to the bright white iris and black pupils, they also have a flattened, elongated snout. Hence the name. "A little creepy," Helen O'Neill, who was part of the research team, calls it in an interview with the New York Times.

Ghost shark Apristurus ovicorrugatus © William T. White/Journal of Fish Biology

The ghost shark has "creepy" white eyes

The scientist cannot explain why the animals have such bright, bright eyes. For deep-sea fish, this is actually unusual. She suspects that it could help the small sharks see better in the darkness of the deep sea, she explains. O'Neill and her colleagues published their research on the new ghost shark in April in the Journal of Fish Biology under the title "What came first, the shark or the egg?".

In it, they describe in detail the mystery of the unknown eggs and the subsequent search for the creature that produced them. As early as 2011, the scientists discovered mysterious structures about six centimeters long and two centimeters wide with a ribbed surface in the midst of uncataloged material from the Western Australian Museum (WAM) in Hobart in Western Australia.

Ghost shark discovered: Mysterious eggs with a special structure led to a new species

All attempts by marine biologists to assign the eggs to a species came to nothing. It quickly became clear to the researchers that they had to belong to the genus Apristurius, a subtype of cat sharks. However, the eggs differed in shape from all other of the approximately 40 known species of catsharks. So it had to be a new, previously undiscovered species.

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Catsharks (Scyliorhinidae):

Cat sharks owe their name to the characteristic shape of their eyes. They have relatively large eyes with elongated pupils, reminiscent of the eyes of cats. In addition, they have a nictitating membrane. So they close their eyes with the lower eyelid.

Cat sharks belong to the smaller shark species. As so-called "greens" or soil feeders, they live and feed on the seabed. To reproduce, they lay eggs, on which there are long threads. They are used to attach the eggs to corals, for example, to prevent them from being swept away by the current.

A subspecies of cat sharks is the genus Apristurus, the so-called ghost or demon cat sharks, to which the newly discovered species also belongs.

(Source: Fishbase.org

)

The novelty of the eggs was that the grooves had a T-shape in cross-section, which was not the case with any other known species. The name suffix ovicorrugatus, which the new species received, comes from these structures on the eggs. "Only one other species in the world has such grooves on the egg shell, but they belong to a completely different genus," study leader William White told livescience.com.

Eggs ghost shark Apristurus ovicorrugatus © William T. White/Journal of Fish Biology

The breakthrough in the search for the "ghost shark" came by chance

For the time being, the evidence that the researchers needed to substantiate their theory of a new species was lacking. The breakthrough came at the end of 2022. Off the west coast of Australia, the researchers accidentally came across fresh egg lays during a dive. In one of them there was even an embryo that was already relatively well developed. That was the piece of the puzzle that the scientists had been missing.

Researchers discovered an egg with an embryo of the ghost shark while diving

"We were very lucky," O'Neill told The New York Times. On the basis of the embryo, it was finally possible to show that the researchers had indeed come across a previously unknown ghost shark – and a very special one at that. Because bright white eyes are a real rarity in the deep sea.

The legendary gigantic prehistoric shark megalodon is also a mystery to science. It has been considered extinct for over three million years. But again and again there are said to have been alleged sightings. However, it is more likely that these are mix-ups. Because there are also other, very large shark species. Most recently, researchers spotted one of the animals, which is said to have been larger than their submarine.

Source: merkur

All news articles on 2023-05-25

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