Goblin Shark. The Goblin shark is a rarely-seen, slow-swimming shark. This shark's snout is quite unusual; it is long, flat, and very pointed. The Goblin shark is a bottom-dweller found in depths of about 3,940 feet.

Goblin Shark

The Goblin shark is a rarely-seen, slow-swimming shark. This shark's snout is quite unusual; it is long, flat, and very pointed. The jaws can protrude during eating, giving the goblin a very unusual look. This elongated snout may contain electrosensory canals (ampullae of Lorenzini) that help this shark find prey.

The Goblin shark has soft, pale, pink-grey skin (paler on the belly), low, rounded fins and a long, asymmetrical tail fin. Its jaws can project open quickly in order to catch prey.

Like other Lamniform sharks, the Goblin shark has an anal fin, five gill slits, two dorsal fins, no fin spines, mouth behind the eyes, and no nictitating eyelids.

The Goblin shark grows to be about 11 feet (3.3 m) long. This species eats fish (both large and small), including other sharks and rays. They also eat squid and crustaceans (like crabs).

The Goblin shark has long, sharp teeth in the front of its mouth. The upper teeth are slightly longer than the lower teeth. These sharp teeth are used for catching fish. The teeth in the back of the mouth are small and used for crushing prey, like crustaceans.

As with other sharks, the teeth are located in rows, which rotate into use as, needed. The first two rows are used in obtaining prey; the other rows rotate into place, as they are needed. As teeth are lost, broken, or worn down, they are replaced by new teeth that rotate into place.

Sharks primarily use their sense of smell followed by their sensing of electric charges. The shark's other senses, like sensing changes in water pressure, eyesight, and hearing, are less important.

Sharks also have an acute sense of smell. (Shark nostrils are only used for smell and not for breathing, like our nostrils. They breathe using gills, not nostrils.)

The sensing of minute electrical discharges in the water is accomplished by a series of jelly-filled canals in the head called the ampullae of Lorenzini. This allows the shark to sense the tiny electrical fields generated by all animals, for example, from muscle contractions. It may also serve to detect magnetic fields which some sharks may use in navigation.

The Goblin shark is a bottom-dweller found in depths of about 3,940 feet (1,200 m) in the western Pacific, the western Indian Ocean and the western and eastern Atlantic.

The Goblin shark is probably harmless, but has rarely been encountered. Very little is known about this shark.