Mitsukurinidae

Mitsukurinidae
Temporal range: 146–0 Ma

Early Cretaceous to Present

Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Chondrichthyes
Subclass: Elasmobranchii
Superorder: Selachimorpha
Order: Lamniformes
Family: Mitsukurinidae
D. S. Jordan, 1898
Genera
Synonyms
  • Scapanorhynchidae

Mitsukurinidae is a family of sharks with one living genus, Mitsukurina, and five fossil genera: Anomotodon, Protoscapanorhynchus, Pseudoscapanorhynchus and Scapanorhynchus, 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.

The most distinctive characteristic of the goblin sharks is the long, trowel-shaped, beak-like snout, much longer than those of other sharks. The snout contains sensory organs to detect the electrical signals given off by the shark's prey.[4] They also possess long, protrusible jaws.[5] When the jaws are retracted, the shark resembles a grey nurse shark, Carcharias taurus, with an unusually long nose.

References

  1. Mikko's Phylogeny Archive
  2. Froese, Rainer, and 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. Stevens, J. & Last, P.R. (1998). Paxton, J.R. & Eschmeyer, W.N., ed. Encyclopedia of Fishes. San Diego: Academic Press. p. 63. ISBN 0-12-547665-5.
  5. Froese, Rainer and Pauly, Daniel, eds. (2005). "Mitsukurina owstoni" in FishBase. 10 2005 version.
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