It may be too early for most people to break out the Halloween decorations, but in the deep waters of the Pacific Ocean, spooky season is already in full swing.
Scientists said Tuesday they have discovered a new species of ghost shark that lives exclusively in the waters off the Pacific Coast. Australia And New Zealand.
The Australasian narrownose ghostfish was found during research surveys in the Chatham Rise, an area of the ocean floor east of New Zealand, according to the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA) in Auckland.
Ghost sharks, also known as chimeras, are a group of cartilaginous fish closely related to sharks and rays. The newly discovered species has several distinctive features, including a long, narrow snout, broad pectoral fins, scale-free skin, and beak-like teeth.
They live mainly on the seabed up to a depth of 2,600 metres (8,530 ft), where they feed on crustaceans such as shrimp and mollusks.
The scientific name Harriotta avia was given to the species by Briton Finucci, NIWA Fisheries scientist, in memory of her grandmother.
It was once considered part of a single globally distributed species, but later research showed it to be genetically and morphologically distinct from its cousins.
“Ghost sharks always surprise me!” Finucci told NBC News on Tuesday. “It just goes to show how little we know about our oceans, especially the deep sea.”
Ghost sharks are “poorly studied” because of their remote habitats and cryptic nature, she said. This long-nosed ghostfish is better studied among its relatives because it is often observed in research surveys and incidentally caught in commercial fisheries, Finucci said.
However, we still don’t know how long they live, how large their populations are, or what role they play in the ecosystem, Finucci noted. “There’s still a lot to learn about ghost sharks!”
There was already a suspicion that this species was different from those in other regions, but it took time to gather enough information to confirm that, Finucci said.
“We are still describing new species on a regular basis, and sometimes these discoveries have been right under our noses the whole time,” she says.
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com