A new species of pocket shark that can emit clouds of fluorescent glowing liquid has been identified thanks to an analysis by the Royal D. Suttkus Fish Collection at the Tulane University Biodiversity Research Institute.
The 5½-inch male kitefin shark, which was caught in the Gulf of Mexico in February 2010, has been identified as the American Pocket Shark, or Mollisquama mississippiensis, based on five features not seen in the only other known specimen of this kind captured in the Eastern Pacific Ocean in 1979.
The details of the new species, described by Mark Grace of the NMFS Mississippi Laboratories of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and Henry Bart and Michael Doosey of the Tulane University Biodiversity Research among others, were published in the animal taxonomy journal Zootaxa.
“In the history of fisheries science, only two pocket sharks have ever been captured or reported,” Grace said. “Both are separate species, each from separate oceans. Both are exceedingly rare.”
The differences between the original Pacific Ocean specimen and the newer specimen from the Gulf of Mexicoinclude fewer vertebrae and numerous light-producing photophores that cover much of the body.
“The fact that only one pocket shark has ever been reported from the Gulf of Mexico, and that it is a new species, underscores how little we know about the Gulf – especially its deeper waters – and how many additional new species from these waters await discovery,” Bart said.