And the mysterious pouches that it's named for, up near its front fins? Scientists say they squirt little glowing clouds into the ocean. It's only the third out of more than known shark species that may squirt luminous liquid, said R.
Dean Grubbs, a Florida State University scientist who was not involved in the research. He said the other two are the previously known pocket shark and the taillight shark , which has a similar gland near its tail.
Like the only other pocket shark known to science β a inch millimeter adult female found in the Pacific Ocean off Peru β this 5. But with this one, scientists figured out what they're for. The muscular glands are lined with pigment-covered fluorescent projections, indicating they squirt luminous liquid, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration ichthyologist Mark Grace and his collaborators wrote in the journal "Zootaxa.
That makes it likely the one caught in and now in a Russian museum was also a light-squirter with a bioluminescent abdomen, though four decades pickled in formaldehyde probably have made it impossible to tell, Grace said Friday. Differences between the two specimens include a possible pressure-sensitive organ that the new species could use to detect motion hundreds of feet away and some differences in the teeth, the scientists wrote.
The new species may also have as many as 10 fewer vertebrae than the other one, called Mollisquama parini. Grace, who is based in Pascagoula, Mississippi, said the baby shark was among specimens collected during a survey to find out what Gulf of Mexico sperm whales eat by trawling in an area and at a depth where tagged whales had been feeding.
