In an effort to earn the love and attention of James Cameron, we here at FLOOD take great pride in keeping up to date with the latest deep sea discoveries. You probably already know, but shit’s pretty crazy down there. Remember when that giant squid was caught on video for the first time? Or when Queen Latifah got attacked by alien jellyfish in Sphere? Yeah, man.
Anyway, today our personalized deep sea RSS feeds were going off like crazy, as the brave souls who study the black abyss of the planet have announced a new finding: the Ninja Lanternshark. More formally titled Etmopterus benchleyi (in honor of Peter Benchley, the author of Jaws), the freshly minted shark actually glows in the dark, but in fact uses that trait to be super sneaky. It can grow to about a foot and a half in size, and lives in the “twilight zone”—not joking—which is about 3,000 feet deep.
photo courtesy of Vicky Vásquez
When researcher Vicky Vásquez asked her eight-year-old cousins for help in deciding the name, they suggested “Super Ninja Shark,” which was mistakenly then toned down to simply “Ninja Lanternshark.” And though you will likely never see this terrifying creature in real life, it will now live among the best-named creatures on the planet, joining the company of the Heteropoda davidbowie spider and the Yeti crab.
(via Hakai Magazine)
