Wikipedia:Today's featured article/July 9, 2025
The goblin shark is a rare species of deep-sea shark. Sometimes called a "living fossil", it is the only extant representative of the family Mitsukurinidae, a lineage 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 metres long (10 to 13 ft) when mature. Goblin sharks inhabit upper continental slopes, submarine canyons and seamounts deeper than 100 metres (330 ft). Anatomical features, such as its flabby body and small fins, suggest that it is sluggish in nature. It 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 has assessed it as Least Concern. (Full article...)