The fearsome species of flying fox that has just been discovered: it is called “devil” for its dazzling white eyes

The sea is not only one of the most visited places in the world, it is also one of the most enigmatic, because despite the development of science and technology, everything that is in the depths n is not known, so there are even legends, imagining the creatures that could inhabit the seabed. Being a place not fully explored, it still surprises with new species of fauna, such as the recently discovered in Australia, a “devil” cat shark.

It was a team of specialists from the Australian Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO) who discovered the said shark specimen belonging to a previously unknown species, according to the Australian Broadcasting Company (ABC) channel.

The species had been tracked for 40 years, decades later, in 2011, researcher Brett A. Human published in the International Journal of Ichthyology a description of the egg carcasses of a shark from the group of catsharks and catsharks (family Scyliorhinidae) which he describes as unique. By studying the eggs, they arrived at the fish that lays them.

It was called the catshark demon (Apristurus ovicorrugatu) because it has very bright white eyes, which is not common in deep-sea sharks. It was found more than 700 meters deep off the coast of Australia. The specimen may help to better understand how sharks evolve, experts say.

But although the discovery is recently documented, it happened in 1992, the difference of more than 30 years between the publication of the study, is due to the fact that there was an error in the classification of the female found three decades ago, which was almost half a meter long and inside there was an egg like those described in the studies.

Now, after verifying that the species found is the same as the one that lays the particular eggs, it has been published in the scientific journal Fish Biology Journalthe discovery of a new species of ghost catshark: Apristurus ovicorrugatusa specific epithet which literally means “wavy egg”.

DMGS