In the Gulf of Mexico discovered a glowing shark of an unknown species of science

A shark has been discovered in the Gulf of Mexico that scientists know nothing about. It is small in size, glows and splashes shimmering liquid into the ocean thanks to photophores - luminous organs located on the body.

Photo: J. Wicker, NOAA/NMFS/SEFSC/Miami Laboratory—Wikipedia, public domain

Researchers who discovered a new type of shark called it the American pocket shark or Mollisquama mississippiensis, reports New York Post.

According to R. Dean Grubbs, a scientist at the University of Florida, this is only the third of more than 500 known species of sharks that can throw out glowing liquid. Two others: the previously known pocket shark and light-tailed shark with photophores near the tail.

"We have a little glowing shark roaming the oceans of the world and we don't know anything about it," said Grubbs, former president of the American Society of Shark and Ray Scientists. “It shows how little we really know.”

Like the scientifically known pocket shark, a 16-inch (400 mm) adult female found in the Pacific Ocean off Peru, this 5,6-inch (142 mm) newborn male has a pouch next to each front fin. Scientists have found out what it is needed for.

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The muscle glands are lined with pigment-covered fluorescent protrusions, which produce a luminous fluid, said ichthyologist from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Mark Grace, in the journal Zootaxa. The shark's belly is littered with groups of light-emitting cells.

In 1979, a similar shark was already caught in Russia, but after 40 years in museum formaldehyde, it is now difficult to determine if this is the kind, experts say.

According to Grace, the glow can hide the shark from prey or from predators. The new species may also have a pressure-sensitive organ that could be used to detect movement from a distance. The new creature is distinguished from pocket sharks and other small sharks by its teeth and the number of vertebrae - 10 less.

Grace says the shark was among the specimens collected in 2010 to find out what sperm whales eat in the Gulf of Mexico. He spent three years to identify the collected samples, and this shark was the last in the box, which opened a specialist.

“I've been doing science for about 40 years and can usually make a pretty good guess about the species of marine animal,” he said. “But here I couldn’t do it.” At first I thought I had done something wrong. It took a while to convince myself that this was something unusual.”

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He called a scientist from Tulan University and said: "Listen, I have really unusual deep-sea materials that I want to keep in your collection, including a shark, which I cannot identify."

Scientists from the American Museum of Natural History in New York and the Florida Museum of Natural History at the University of Florida also took part.

In the newspaper 2015, the shark was named the second of its kind. It took years, including high-resolution scans in a particle accelerator in Grenoble, France, to get more internal details and make sure this is a new look. Another European expert, Julien Claes, made a cellular dissection of a piece of tissue and found that the cells are similar to those found in a shark, which is kept in the Russian museum and was still considered an unknown species.

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