Why is this animal unusual?
Its jaws aren’t fixed in place. When prey comes close, they shoot forward at around 3 metres per second, far out of the face, then snap back. Scientists call it slingshot feeding. It’s the fastest jaw trick of any shark.
Why does it look like that?
The long flat snout is packed with sensors that pick up the faint electricity of living prey. And the pink colour isn’t pigment – the skin is see-through, so you’re looking at the blood underneath.
Strangest biological feature
Those catapult jaws, held back by stretchy ligaments like a loaded crossbow.
Why is it strange?
It’s a terrible swimmer. Small fins and a soft, flabby body mean it mostly drifts and ambushes – it lets the jaws do the sprinting.
Interesting behavioral facts
Almost everything we know comes from accidental catches. In 2003, more than a hundred goblin sharks were reportedly netted off Taiwan in a short time – nobody knows why they gathered there.
Records held
It’s the last surviving member of a shark family that’s about 125 million years old.
