Is That A Shark In Your Pocket?

When people think of sharks, “cute” isn’t exactly the first word that springs to mind. Thanks to movies like Jaws, people are far more likely to imagine huge Great Whites or other relentless predators. Yet science has again shown that there’s room for almost everything in the oceans, including a shark small enough to fit in your pocket.

Mollisquama parini is a species of shark that’s only 5.5 inches long, and scientists observing the feeding habits of sperm whales off the coast of Louisiana in the US have recently found the second specimen ever discovered, some 36 years after the first one was spotted off the coast of Chile. Dubbed the “pocket shark”, its name is misleading because it refers not to its pocked-sized dimensions, but to the unique and rather mysterious pocket-like orifice it has above its pectoral fin. Researchers believe the small shark was born in the Gulf of Mexico because it was probably just a few weeks old when it was found and still had an unhealed umbilical scar.