As promised, this week of Wild Facts will have a theme since I am in the process of moving across the Country.  As a result, these facts have been pre-written and automatically posted.  This week’s theme has been done before but I find it so fascinating that I wanted to look at some more “Deep Sea Creatures”.  That’s right, we are heading to the deepest and darkest depths of the ocean to find some interesting animals, and believe me, there are  a ton of them.  We will start the week off with the Goblin Shark, which is probably an animal I should have saved for Halloween, but I can’t wait that long.

The Goblin Shark is obviously a Deep-Sea Shark, which can be found throughout the oceans of the world but are most notably found around Japan.  This poor shark’s family reunions must be very depressing since they are the only living species in their entire family. At least they would have a lot of left-overs once the reunion was over.

Okay, so by now, you are probably wondering what in the world is up with their head.  You are right, they have a long trowel-shaped head with a long snout, which makes them look considerably different than most sharks.  So what is the purpose of this odd shaped head?  Well, when you are a shark living in the deepest depths of the ocean, you need to find creative solutions to seeking out food.  This odd shaped head helps the Goblin Shark to detect and feed on a variety of marine animals.

In order to detect their prey, this shark will use the electro-sensitive organs found on their snout.  Yep, they detect the electrical currents emitted by their poor unsuspecting prey.  The really cool part is how they catch them though.  Once they detect a yummy meal, the Goblin Shark will suddenly protrude their jaw and use their tongue-like muscle to suck the prey into their sharp teeth.  How cool is it that they can just retract and protrude their jaw to surprise those little sea creatures?

Goblin Shark Fast Fact – The Goblin Shark also differs from other sharks since their fins are rounded instead of pointed.  If this wasn’t enough, they are also pink, which isn’t too common among sharks.  No wonder they headed to the deep depths of the ocean – all the other sharks were probably picking on them for being different.

Well that does it for the first Deep Sea Creature of the week. Make sure you tune in tomorrow to learn about another bizarre creature living on our planet.