Unbelievably rare (and kind of cute) ‘pocket shark’ discovered

About this baby pocket shark, researcher Mark Grace said: “Discovering him has us thinking about where mom and dad may be, and how they got to the Gulf.”M. Doosey/Tulane University

Even if you’re a diehard animal lover who tunes in to every episode aired during “Shark Week,” you’d be forgiven for not knowing about the pocket shark. The very first one was found 36 years ago off the coast of Peru and since then, the species had never been seen again — until now.

According to a new study published in the journal Zootaxa, the second pocket shark ever to be seen has been discovered. It was found in a batch of fish collected as part of a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) study conducted in 2010, about 190 miles offshore Louisiana to study sperm whale feeding.

 

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