A Catapult in the Dark
Deep in the aphotic "midnight zone" of the ocean, the goblin shark (Mitsukurina owstoni) employs a bizarre and highly effective hunting strategy known as "slingshot feeding." The shark's jaws are not fixed but can be projected forward from its head at astonishing speeds. Analysis of the first-ever footage of this behavior revealed a maximum jaw velocity of 3.1 meters per second, the fastest recorded for any fish.
This rapid protrusion is powered by two pairs of elastic ligaments in the mandibular joint. When the jaws are retracted, these ligaments are stretched and store elastic energy. Upon striking, the ligaments are released, catapulting the jaws forward like a rubber band. The jaws can extend a distance of up to 9.4% of the shark's total body length, which is 2.1 to 9.5 times farther than other sharks. This allows the slow-swimming predator to snatch agile prey like deep-sea fish, squid, and crustaceans that would otherwise be out of reach.
An Ancient Survivor
The goblin shark is the only living representative of the family Mitsukurinidae, a lineage that dates back 125 million years to the Cretaceous period. Its anatomy is a collection of adaptations for life in near-total darkness at depths of 270 to 1,300 meters. The shark's most prominent feature is its long, flattened snout, or rostrum. This soft, blade-like appendage is covered in electroreceptors called ampullae of Lorenzini, which detect the minute electric fields produced by the heartbeats and muscle contractions of nearby prey.
The shark's body is soft and flabby, with poorly developed muscles and small fins, indicating a sluggish lifestyle. It achieves neutral buoyancy with a large, oily liver, allowing it to drift silently toward a meal with minimal movement. Its distinctive pinkish-white color is not from pigment but from its translucent skin, which allows the blood vessels in its capillaries to be visible. This coloration may serve as camouflage, as red light does not penetrate to these depths, rendering the shark nearly invisible. While found in scattered deep-water locations globally, a significant number of specimens have been found in Sagami Bay, off the coast of Japan.