The goblin shark is a rare, poorly known species of deep-sea shark. Sometimes called a "living fossil", it is the only extant representative of the family Mitsukurinidae, a lineage some 125 million years old. This species looks unlike any other shark, with a long flattened snout, highly protrusible jaws containing prominent nail-like teeth, and pink coloration. Its snout is covered with ampullae of Lorenzini that enable it to sense minute electric fields produced by nearby prey, which it can snatch up by rapidly extending its jaws. It is usually three to four meters long (10–13 ft) when mature. Goblin sharks inhabit upper continental slopes, submarine canyons, and seamounts around the world at depths greater than 100 m (330 ft). Various anatomical features, such as its flabby body and small fins, suggest that it is sluggish in nature. This species hunts for teleost fishes, cephalopods, and crustaceans both near the sea floor and in the middle of the water column. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has assessed it as Least Concern, citing its wide distribution and low incidence of accidental capture by deepwater fisheries.
Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goblin_shark
_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:
1542:
Anglo-Scottish Wars: England captured about 1,200 Scottish prisoners with its victory in the Battle of Solway Moss. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Solway_Moss
1859:
On the Origin of Species by British naturalist Charles Darwin was first published, and sold out its initial print run on the first day. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_the_Origin_of_Species
1863:
American Civil War: As part of the Chattanooga Campaign in Chattanooga, Tennessee, Union forces captured Lookout Mountain, helping them to begin breaking the Confederate siege of the city. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Lookout_Mountain
1950:
The "Storm of the Century", a large extratropical cyclone, struck the east coast of the United States before moving northeast. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Appalachian_Storm_of_November_1950
1974:
A group of paleoanthropologists discovered a 3.2-million-year- old skeleton of an Australopithecus afarensis in the Afar Depression in Ethiopia, nicknaming it "Lucy". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucy_(Australopithecus)
_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:
scriptorium: A room set aside for the copying, writing, or illuminating of manuscripts and records, especially such a room in a monastery. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/scriptorium
___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:
Schisms do not originate in a love of truth, which is a source of courtesy and gentleness, but rather in an inordinate desire for supremacy. From all these considerations it is clearer than the sun at noonday, that the true schismatics are those who condemn other men's writings, and seditiously stir up the quarrelsome masses against their authors, rather than those authors themselves, who generally write only for the learned, and appeal solely to reason. In fact, the real disturbers of the peace are those who, in a free state, seek to curtail the liberty of judgment which they are unable to tyrannize over. --Baruch Spinoza https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Baruch_Spinoza