Mitsukurinidae

Mitsukurinidae is a family of sharks with one living genus, Mitsukurina, and four fossil genera: Anomotodon, Protoscapanorhynchus, Scapanorhynchus, and Woellsteinia,[1] though some taxonomists consider Scapanorhynchus to be a synonym of Mitsukurina.[2][3] The only known living species is the goblin shark, Mitsukurina owstoni.

Mitsukurinidae
Temporal range: Early Cretaceous to Present
Specimen of living goblin shark
Fossil of Scapanorhynchus from the early Late Cretaceous of Lebanon
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Chondrichthyes
Order: Lamniformes
Family: Mitsukurinidae
D. S. Jordan, 1898
Genera
Synonyms
  • Scapanorhynchidae

This family of sharks is named in honour of Kakichi Mitsukuri who brought the holotype of the only species in this family to David Starr Jordon to be scientifically described.[4]

The most distinctive characteristic of the goblin sharks is the long, trowel-shaped, beak-like snout, much longer than those of other sharks. Its long 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.[5] They also possess long, protrusible jaws.[6] When the jaws are retracted, the shark resembles a sand tiger shark, Carcharias taurus, with an unusually long nose. Its nose resembles the nose of a goblin, which is how it received its name. These sharks have only been seen about 50 times since their discovery in 1897.

References
  1. Mikko's Phylogeny Archive
  2. Froese, Rainer; Daniel Pauly, eds. (2010). "List of Nominal Species of Mitsukurinidae (Goblin shark)". FishBase. Retrieved 2010-08-24.
  3. "Scapanorhynchus". Integrated Taxonomic Information System. Retrieved 2010-08-24.
  4. Jordan, David Starr (1898). "Description of a species of fish (Mitsukurina owstoni) from Japan, the type of a distinct family of Lamnoid Sharks". Proceedings of the California Academy of Sciences. Series 3. 1: 199–201 – via Biodiversity Heritage Library.
  5. Stevens, J. & Last, P.R. (1998). Paxton, J.R. & Eschmeyer, W.N. (eds.). Encyclopedia of Fishes. San Diego: Academic Press. p. 63. ISBN 0-12-547665-5.
  6. Froese, Rainer; Pauly, Daniel (eds.) (2005). "Mitsukurina owstoni" in FishBase. 10 2005 version.


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