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>