Recently in New Zealand, a new type of shark – unlike all others – was spotted in the deep dark waters surrounding the coast. This new shark entirely glows in the dark, coming straight out of a horror film.
The ocean has always been a mysterious never-ending pool of discovery. Marine biologists are constantly discovering its new depths and the very very odd creatures that live beneath the sun’s reach. Just recently in New Zealand, a 6ft long kitefin shark has been discovered that completely glows in the dark.
Watch the news coverage below:
This new deep-sea creature is a strong contender of the potentials of bioluminescence. Supposedly, its glowing underbelly is to distract larger predators from below attacking them, and also potentially to attract weaker prey to come investigate this light source for them to feed on.
This type of illumination is therefore not for communication or mating reasons, but instead, for “counter-illumination”. This is basically the contrary of the more common counter-shading that many deep-sea creatures have where they have a darker color on top and a whiter color on their bottom bellies to make it harder for them to be spotted from either side. In such deep-seas, however, light is so extremely rare that any shadow from below becomes an obvious giveaway. The slight glowing that bioluminescent deep-sea creatures have is to counteract this and have virtually no shadow.
Still not an easy win for these fish though, because some fish have eyes that have developed to filter out light so they can tell the difference between bioluminescence and natural sunlight. So, it’s still very difficult to stay sly in the darkness…even when you’ve got cool light tricks up your sleeve.
The ocean is endlessly deep and its ridiculous to imagine how only now have we been able to discover this 6ft long glowing shark. Makes one wonder if its been just a recent evolution, or if they’ve always been around but hiding very well from our prying scientific eyes.
If the thought of all the odd creatures that could live down below freaks you out, actually, you might have something called Thalassophobia… read more about it here.
