There’s a lot going on in the deep ocean that we don’t know about or haven’t discovered yet. From over recently discovered off the coast of New Zealand to vast areas of discovered on the ocean floor in the Pacific. Now, another new species has come to light and it’s something of a ghost.
Chimaeras are a group of fish that include , also known as ratfishes, which are typically found in deep-sea habitats from around 500 meters (1,640 feet) down or further. The species aren’t actually sharks at all but species of cartilaginous fish. They are related to sharks but are thought to have diverged around 400 million years ago, according to the . The members of these groups are told apart by differences on their large snouts and, in the family Chimaeridae, the position of their anal fins.
In October 2018, a deep-sea survey collected a single specimen at a depth of 772-775 meters (2,532-2,542 feet) in the Andaman Sea off the coast of Thailand. Originally reported as Chimaera aff. macrospina, the team took further genetic data and conducted morphological analysis and instead suggested that this is a new species.
The species has been given the name Chimaera supapae in honor of Professor Supap Monkolprasit who died in 2013 and devoted her entire life to the study of cartilaginous fishes in Thailand.
Chimaera supapae can be distinguished from other by their unusual appearance. The fish has a massive head, with a short snout and large oval eyes. The specimen that the team found is thought to be an immature male with a total length of 50.8 centimeters (20 inches).
Its eyes are recorded as being iridescent green. Massive heads aren’t the only thing weird about ghost sharks – one study took a closer look at what they are .
In the new study, the researchers compared Chimaera supapae to 11 other species of Chimaera. The new species is different to two other species based on its color, as it is dark brown without any blotches, stripes, or spots. The team think that the new species belongs to its own clade as it is not closely related to Chimaera macrospina, an Australian species that it bears close physical resemblance to.
“The discovery of new species like this chimaera tells us how little we know about the marine environment and how much is still to be explored,” Dr David Ebert, lead author of the study, told .
The paper is published in .