- Status: Safe
- Ocean floors deeper than 650 feet, mostly off Japan
Numbers
- Weight
- 350 lbmaximum recorded value
- Length
- 11 ftmaximum reported 11 feet; in 2004 a 13 foot specimen was caught in Tasmania
- Depth
- 4200 ftusually lives around 800 feet, this is the capture record
- Liver weight
- 25 percent of bodyhelps with buoyancy in the absence of a swim bladder
- Known specimens
- 45 specimensfigure reported by the source, likely outdated
Ten fun facts
the name comes from the Japanese tenguzame, because tengu are mythical creatures depicted with very long red noses.
it is the only living member of its family, as about two dozen related species are known only from fossils.
its pink color is not from pigment, but from semi-transparent skin that reveals the blood vessels flowing underneath it.
a muscle similar to a tongue sucks prey into the mouth immediately after the jaws snap forward into the water.
the first specimen was caught in 1897 off Yokohama, and it was a male measuring forty-two inches long.
in 2003, more than one hundred specimens were caught near Taiwan right after an earthquake in a new area.
a live specimen caught in Tokyo Bay in January 2007 was displayed in an aquarium, but died two days later.
in August 2008, a Japanese television crew managed to film a live individual, creating rare footage of the species.
its tail resembles that of thresher sharks, featuring a very long upper lobe and no lower lobe at all.
two previously undescribed species of tapeworms were discovered inside an Australian specimen, both completely new to science.
The quiz answers
The first one is the question printed in your book: here is the answer. The other four are extra.
Question 1 of 5★ this one is in your book
How does it spot prey in the dark abyss?
Question 2 of 5
Why is the goblin shark pink?
Question 3 of 5
What do its jaws do when it attacks?
Question 4 of 5
How much does the liver of this shark weigh?
Question 5 of 5
Where do most known specimens come from?
Try it yourself
Measure eleven feet on the floor with a tape measure and mark the ends with two books. This is the maximum known length of this shark.
Weigh your backpack, then calculate how many backpacks you need to reach three hundred fifty pounds. That is the maximum recorded weight for this species.
Calculate one quarter of your body weight. In the goblin shark, that is the weight of the liver alone, which helps the animal float.
Data from Wikidata (Q499461) and Wikipedia (Goblin shark).