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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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To: nmh
"What are you look'n at?".....
21 posted on 09/23/2009 8:49:44 AM PDT by AngelesCrestHighway
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To: JoeProBono

They’re going to call it the “Willius Clintouius Erectus.”


22 posted on 09/23/2009 8:53:28 AM PDT by Dick Bachert
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To: Seruzawa
"Has to be male."

And designed by a woman.

23 posted on 09/23/2009 8:55:11 AM PDT by Natural Law
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To: Dick Bachert

Possibly.....Bubbas Erectus?


24 posted on 09/23/2009 8:57:48 AM PDT by AngelesCrestHighway
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To: AngelesCrestHighway

I still don’t see what makes him so attractive to some people.


25 posted on 09/23/2009 9:00:38 AM PDT by kimmie7 (THE CROSS - Today, Tomorrow and Always!)
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To: SoDak; Justice Department; chae; chargers fan; NellieMae; Rocketwolf68; NCBraveheart; ...
Photobucket

If you would like to be On or Off the Crypto Ping List, please let me know.

Thanks, Dragonblustar

26 posted on 09/23/2009 9:00:42 AM PDT by dragonblustar ("... and if you disagree with me, then you sir, are worse than Hitler!" - Greg Gutfeld)
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To: ExpatGator
Give new meaning to the term “peckerhead”

Or giving head....

27 posted on 09/23/2009 9:08:40 AM PDT by dragonblustar ("... and if you disagree with me, then you sir, are worse than Hitler!" - Greg Gutfeld)
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To: ExpatGator

When I read the title of this post,I thought of Barney Franks.Only difference is that it’s someone else’s sex organ on his head.


28 posted on 09/23/2009 9:12:16 AM PDT by Farmer Dean (Don't blame me,I voted for the American)
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To: MediaMole
Life imitates South Park.

And Deuce Bigalow...


29 posted on 09/23/2009 9:12:21 AM PDT by Charles Martel (NRA Lifetime Member since 1984; TSRA rookie)
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To: dragonblustar

This thread started out in a death spiral, and had picked up velocity...


30 posted on 09/23/2009 9:34:17 AM PDT by ExpatGator (Extending logic since 1961.)
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To: JoeProBono

I know I am probably not the first, but the term “dickhead” really applies here doesn’t it?


31 posted on 09/23/2009 9:34:49 AM PDT by celestron71
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To: JoeProBono

Richard Head.


32 posted on 09/23/2009 9:36:55 AM PDT by wardaddy (Obama, you suck Bro and we are kicking your butt for now anyhow)
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To: wardaddy

33 posted on 09/23/2009 9:40:53 AM PDT by JoeProBono (A closed mouth gathers no feet)
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To: nmh

Reminds me of a joke:

Why was the man so melancholy after his midget girlfriend broke up with him?

He was nuts over her.


34 posted on 09/23/2009 9:58:39 AM PDT by Two Kids' Dad (((( I am a proud citizen of GlennBeckistan. ))))
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To: JoeProBono

“I’m a dorkfish!”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yH6sE8RMUuU

Mark


35 posted on 09/23/2009 9:59:20 AM PDT by MarkL (Do I really look like a guy with a plan?)
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To: ExpatGator
This thread started out in a death spiral, and had picked up velocity...

Yeppers. This one's doomed. ROFL!

36 posted on 09/23/2009 10:01:31 AM PDT by Billthedrill
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To: MarkL

37 posted on 09/23/2009 10:01:51 AM PDT by JoeProBono (A closed mouth gathers no feet)
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To: Slings and Arrows

Give new meaning to the term “peckerhead”
***Here’s one for the not-a-ping list, it’s already turning into a witticism festival.


38 posted on 09/23/2009 9:23:50 PM PDT by Kevmo (So America gets what America deserves - the destruction of its Constitution. ~Leo Donofrio, 6/1/09)
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To: JoeProBono

No wonder the bottom one looked sick. He’s a dead head.


39 posted on 09/23/2009 9:29:19 PM PDT by Protect the Bill of Rights ("Fight to win or bring them home.")
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To: JoeProBono

Short sighted and needed to get closer to his “work”!


40 posted on 09/23/2009 9:33:30 PM PDT by dalereed
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