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.
Give new meaning to the term “peckerhead”
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.
Well, it would make “missing the mark” a lot harder...
Who says we don’t think with it ...
Sex organ on its head?
Has to be male.
Man has two heads, but only enough blood to operate one at a time. Perhaps this could be a solution?? :)
Yep!
Finally, a male who can think with his big head!
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.
I was going to ping you...
Paging Congressman Frank...
How convenient that would be for Billy boy.
No unzipping. Just bow down and be serviced.
Paging Congressman Frank...
Speaking of peckerheads, kadaffyduck just said “we would be happy and content if obama could be president forever”
I almost posted something else that wasn't appropriate.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.