Costa Rica: Researchers Believe They Have Discovered a New Species of Ghost Shark
Genetic analysis suggests the fish is reproductively isolated, and scientists say it could be the first ghost shark known from the Central American coast.
- On Friday, Costa Rican scientists in San Jose unveiled a potential new ghost shark species discovered in Pacific waters near Cabo Blanco and Cano Island.
- Ghost sharks belong to a group of cartilaginous fish called Rinochimaera that genetically diverged nearly 400 million years ago.
- The specimen features a "shorter" snout, a "darker colouration pattern" and a "much longer spine on its dorsal fin," according to Arturo Angulo Sibaja, a biology professor at the University of Costa Rica.
- Genetic analysis indicates the new species has "no reproductive contact" with other ghost sharks, making it the only such species "known for the Central American coast," Sibaja said.
- Scientists are comparing the discovery against earlier specimens found near Peru and Chile, as Sibaja noted it "most likely" has a "broader distribution along the coast of Central and South America.
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Shark cusins, these deep-eyed animals genetically separated from their parents nearly 400 million years ago.
Scientists in the Pacific Ocean have identified a specimen of chimera with morphological and genetic characteristics distinct from known species.
Until now, three species of ghost shark had been identified: in South Africa, Taiwan, Australia, Japan, and the Atlantic Ocean, between Greenland and Brazil. The species discovered near Cape Blanco and Isla del Caño "is the only one (of ghost shark) known on the coast of Central America," said Arturo Angulo Sibaja, a professor and researcher at the School of Biology at the University of Costa Rica. It has a "shorter" snout, a "darker coloratio…
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