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Weird New Ghostshark Found; Male Has Sex Organ on Head
nationalgeographic. ^ | September 22, 2009

Posted on 09/23/2009 8:37:52 AM PDT by JoeProBono

California has a new star, the Eastern Pacific black ghostshark.

But the newly identified species prefers to stay out of the sun—and the spotlight. And with a club-like sex organ on its forehead, the male ghostshark isn't likely to get any leading man roles.

Pictured alive underwater (top) and preserved in a museum collection (bottom), the new ghostshark uses winglike fins to "fly" through its dark habitat, thousands of feet deep off the coasts of California and Mexico's Baja California peninsula, a new study says. (See map.)

The ghostshark seems to have flown under the scientific radar too. Since the 1960s experts have been finding specimens of the strange, 3-foot-long (0.9-meter-long) fish, which ended up nameless in museum collections around the world.

It wasn't until after a team recently searched through shelves of "dead pickled fish" that the Eastern Pacific black ghostshark was recognized as its own new species, said study co-author Douglas Long, chief curator in natural sciences at the Oakland Museum of California>. The specimens' unique proportions, precisely measured, gave the fish away as a separate species of ghostshark.

Ghostsharks in Chimerical Company

The shark-like animal belongs to the mysterious and little-studied chimeras, perhaps the oldest group of fish alive today.

These "living fossils" branched off from sharks about 400 million years ago. They may have survived by adapting to extreme deep-sea environments, Long said.


TOPICS: Pets/Animals
KEYWORDS: ghostshark; napl
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1 posted on 09/23/2009 8:37:52 AM PDT by JoeProBono
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To: JoeProBono

Give new meaning to the term “peckerhead”


2 posted on 09/23/2009 8:40:31 AM PDT by ExpatGator (Extending logic since 1961.)
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To: JoeProBono

Maybe it got tired of living in the Mariannas Trench.
That part of the ocean always fascinated me,and I often wondered what kind of marine life lurked down there.


3 posted on 09/23/2009 8:40:36 AM PDT by gimme1ibertee (Palin/Malkin 2012...the 'Cuda and the Asian Fox!)
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To: JoeProBono

Well, it would make “missing the mark” a lot harder...


4 posted on 09/23/2009 8:41:27 AM PDT by OneWingedShark (Q: Why am I here? A: To do Justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with my God.)
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To: ExpatGator

Who says we don’t think with it ...


5 posted on 09/23/2009 8:42:02 AM PDT by clamper1797 (If Obama were a paid Soviet agent he could not do more damage ... Sen Thomas Jordan)
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To: JoeProBono
Sharks with frickin' laser beams on their frickin' heads?

6 posted on 09/23/2009 8:43:01 AM PDT by TSgt (I long for Norman Rockwell's America.)
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To: JoeProBono

7 posted on 09/23/2009 8:43:11 AM PDT by FreeAtlanta (There is no "O" in Transparency.)
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To: JoeProBono

Sex organ on its head?

Has to be male.


8 posted on 09/23/2009 8:43:11 AM PDT by Seruzawa (If you agree with the French raise your hand - If you are French raise both hands.)
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To: JoeProBono

Man has two heads, but only enough blood to operate one at a time. Perhaps this could be a solution?? :)


9 posted on 09/23/2009 8:43:27 AM PDT by IamConservative (I'll keep my money. You keep the change.)
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To: clamper1797

Yep!


10 posted on 09/23/2009 8:43:44 AM PDT by ExpatGator (Extending logic since 1961.)
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To: ExpatGator

Finally, a male who can think with his big head!


11 posted on 09/23/2009 8:43:48 AM PDT by dblshot
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To: ExpatGator

12 posted on 09/23/2009 8:44:55 AM PDT by AngelesCrestHighway
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To: JoeProBono

Liberals should go nuts over this - no pun intended.

They are so preoccuppied with sex in any form.

Perhaps one of them will attempt to HUMP it.


13 posted on 09/23/2009 8:45:22 AM PDT by nmh (Intelligent people recognize Intelligent Design (God).)
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To: OneWingedShark

I was going to ping you...


14 posted on 09/23/2009 8:45:35 AM PDT by null and void (We are now in day 245 of our national holiday from reality. - 0bama really isn't one of US.)
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To: OneWingedShark

Paging Congressman Frank...


15 posted on 09/23/2009 8:46:07 AM PDT by takbodan (.)
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To: JoeProBono

Life imitates South Park.
16 posted on 09/23/2009 8:46:46 AM PDT by MediaMole
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To: FreeAtlanta

How convenient that would be for Billy boy.

No unzipping. Just bow down and be serviced.


17 posted on 09/23/2009 8:47:02 AM PDT by nmh (Intelligent people recognize Intelligent Design (God).)
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To: null and void

Paging Congressman Frank...


18 posted on 09/23/2009 8:47:10 AM PDT by takbodan (.)
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To: null and void

Speaking of peckerheads, kadaffyduck just said “we would be happy and content if obama could be president forever”


19 posted on 09/23/2009 8:48:00 AM PDT by null and void (We are now in day 245 of our national holiday from reality. - 0bama really isn't one of US.)
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To: AngelesCrestHighway

I almost posted something else that wasn't appropriate.

20 posted on 09/23/2009 8:48:39 AM PDT by MaxMax (Um, Ah, hmm, um, er, ah, achoo, er, um, sneeze, er, BUSH'S FAULT)
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