Historic ocean discovery: “Hideous” shark species seen off the coast of Spain for the first time

Scientists in Spain have announced a rare sighting of a shark whose unusual appearance has even inspired the look of Hollywood extra-terrestrials.

Researchers at the Universidad de La Laguna (ULL) have confirmed an encounter with a goblin shark - a species seen so infrequently that there are fewer than 250 recorded observations since its discovery in 1898.

In a statement on the ULL website this week, researchers said the eight-foot-long goblin shark was accidentally caught by recreational fishers, around five miles off the coast of Gran Canaria. One of Spain’s eight Canary Islands, Gran Canaria is located in the eastern Atlantic Ocean, about 90 miles from the northwestern African coast.

The May 2024 encounter with the shark, which was caught at a depth of 900 meters (2,950 feet), is also detailed in a paper published in the Thalassas scientific journal.

“The interaction with the specimen lasted ~ 10-15 min, including capture, handling, and subsequent release alive,” the researchers revealed in Thalassas.

What to know about the goblin shark

The sole living species of the Mitsukurinidae family of sharks - whose lineage can be traced back some 125 million years - the goblin shark typically inhabits deep waters, ranging from about 800 feet to over 3,000 feet in depth, notes the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service’s Daniel Kemp.

Typically measuring around eight feet, it is a shark that can be found in a number of areas across the globe. It enjoys a “sparse but cosmopolitan distribution in tropical and temperate waters”, say ULL’s researchers - who point out that its known geographical range has now grown.

“This capture is the first confirmed record of M. owstoni [the goblin shark] in the Canary Islands” they explain, adding: “This record constitutes a notable expansion of the species’ known distribution range in the Central-Eastern Atlantic.”

“A jaw that whips forward like a slingshot”

The goblin shark is best known for its remarkable, somewhat unsightly appearance, highlighted by what Kemp describes as “an almost comically long snout that overhangs an underslung mouth”.

However, this apparently clumsy physique is, in fact, anything but: thanks to what the ULL scientists describe as a “pronounced oral protrusion capability”, the shark can extend its jaw far forward, and at great pace, quickly swallowing prey up into its mouth.

“Only the goblin has a jaw that whips forward like a slingshot,” explains the National Geographic video below. “10 feet per second: So fast, it can only be seen in slow motion.”

Per the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, the shark primarily feeds on species such as squids and rat-tail fishes. There is no record of any deadly goblin-shark attacks on humans.

“Hideous beyond belief”

So eye-catching are the goblin shark’s physical features that they led the Ridley Scott, the Oscar-nominated director of the 1979 hit Alien, to draw on the animal when designing a species of extra-terrestrial for one of the sci-fi movie’s several followups.

Speaking in 2017, Scott revealed that the species provided inspiration for the ‘neomorph’ aliens featured in that year’s Alien: Covenant, the sixth instalment in the Alien franchise. “It’s scary, hideous beyond belief actually,” he said of the shark, per AFP.

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