{"id":113111,"date":"2025-08-27T06:16:09","date_gmt":"2025-08-27T06:16:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/113111\/"},"modified":"2025-08-27T06:16:09","modified_gmt":"2025-08-27T06:16:09","slug":"white-eyed-bright-orange-shark-the-result-of-extremely-rare-mutation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/113111\/","title":{"rendered":"White-Eyed, Bright Orange Shark the Result of Extremely Rare Mutation"},"content":{"rendered":"<p id=\"inline-text-0\" class=\"mt-[18px] md:mt-0 mb-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"9p\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.mentalfloss.com\/article\/624863\/shark-facts\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Sharks<\/a> are a lot of things, but they usually aren\u2019t orange. That\u2019s probably what a group of fishers thought when they came across a cartilaginous fish resembling a giant Cheeto in 2024.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#inline-text-2\">Meet the Most Colorful Shark You\u2019ve Ever Seen<\/a><a href=\"#inline-text-9\">What Causes Albino-Xanthrochromism?<\/a>Meet the Most Colorful Shark You\u2019ve Ever Seen<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-3\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"9y\">The oddly-colored shark was spotted during a fishing trip in 2024, <a href=\"https:\/\/gizmodo.com\/this-orange-shark-is-the-result-of-a-rare-genetic-double-whammy-2000647573\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Gizmodo<\/a> reports. Initially thinking it was a giant goldfish, people on board the boat reeled in the 6-foot creature to snap pictures of it before letting it go. Researchers later determined that the fish wasn\u2019t a goldfish; it was a nurse shark. The species is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mentalfloss.com\/article\/559319\/nurse-shark-facts\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">typically brown<\/a>, but they\u2019re also known to be shades of gray or yellow in some cases.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-4\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"a1\">The experts determined that the aquatic predator\u2019s coloration was the result of an extremely rare condition called xanthism, characterized by oddly yellow skin that\u2019s only been identified in a few animals. Additionally, the nurse shark had white eyes with no visible iris, indicating that it also had albinism. This combination (albino-xanthrochromism) makes the shark unique to science\u2014it has only been seen <a href=\"https:\/\/www.researchgate.net\/publication\/326462719_Albino_xanthochromic_Homelyn_Ray_Raja_montagui_Fowler_1910_Elasmobranchii_Batoidea_from_the_Irish_Sea\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">once before<\/a> in any marine species.\u00a0The findings are laid out in the journal <a href=\"https:\/\/link.springer.com\/article\/10.1007\/s12526-025-01558-5\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Marine Biodiversity<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>You May Also Like:What Causes Albino-Xanthrochromism?<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-10\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"ah\">The cause of the shark\u2019s genetic mutations is a mystery. Researchers say it\u2019s possible that inbreeding or environmental stressors like higher ocean temperatures may be at play.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-11\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"ak\">A shark\u2019s typically muted coloring helps it <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mentalfloss.com\/animals\/fish\/why-do-great-white-sharks-have-white-bellies\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">blend in with the ocean<\/a>, camouflaging it from both predators and prey. The nurse shark\u2019s vivid shade, on the other hand, is hard to miss, and the researchers are surprised that it was able to survive to adulthood. Beyond making it a potential target, the shark\u2019s albino-xanthrochromism doesn\u2019t seem to have any ill effects. Marioxis Macias, the study\u2019s lead author and an oceanographer at Universidade Federal Do Rio Grande in Brazil, told Gizmodo that the shark appeared to be healthy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sharks are a lot of things, but they usually aren\u2019t orange. That\u2019s probably what a group of fishers&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":113112,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[79,201],"class_list":{"0":"post-113111","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-science","9":"tag-wildlife"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113111","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=113111"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113111\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/113112"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=113111"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=113111"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=113111"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}