{"id":837311,"date":"2026-09-05T11:56:23","date_gmt":"2026-09-05T11:56:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/837311\/"},"modified":"2026-09-05T11:56:23","modified_gmt":"2026-09-05T11:56:23","slug":"a-new-ghost-shark-species-was-just-discovered-lurking-in-the-deep-sea-off-costa-rica","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/837311\/","title":{"rendered":"A New \u2018Ghost Shark\u2019 Species Was Just Discovered Lurking in the Deep Sea Off Costa Rica"},"content":{"rendered":"

NEED TO KNOW<\/p>\n

Researchers identified Rhinochimaera costaricana, a new species of ghost shark, in deep waters off Costa Rica<\/p>\n

The species was distinguished by unique physical traits and DNA analysis, marking a new branch on the tree of life<\/p>\n

Experts highlight the need to study deep-sea life as ecosystems face threats from fishing, mining and climate change<\/p>\n

The deep sea is still full of surprises. Its latest is a fish that scientists have discovered is completely new to science.<\/p>\n

Researchers have formally described a new species of \u201cghost shark,\u201d a group of deep-sea fishes known scientifically as rhinochimaeras, according to Forbes<\/a>. The animal, named Rhinochimaera costaricana, was found in the sunless depths off the Pacific coast of Costa Rica, hundreds of meters below the surface.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a><\/p>\n

A deep sea ghost shark with a pointed snout and winglike fins viewed laterallyCredit: Naidely Valeria Vidaurre Quesada<\/p>\n

The nickname is a bit misleading, as ghost \u201csharks\u201d aren\u2019t sharks at all. Per Forbes, they belong to an ancient group of cartilaginous fishes called chimaeras, which branched off from the shared ancestor of sharks and rays hundreds of millions of years ago and have been quietly doing their own thing ever since.<\/p>\n

Researchers had just three male specimens, netted off Costa Rica\u2019s Pacific coast between 2000 and 2023 and measuring roughly 30.5 to 32.6 inches long. Because deep-sea creatures tend to evolve similar body plans to endure the crushing pressure, cold and darkness of their habitat, telling one apart from another often comes down to millimeters. The team recorded 49 separate body measurements and compared them against more than 90 specimens from the three previously known species in the genus.<\/p>\n

What set the Costa Rican fish apart was a specific mix of features: a shorter snout, a taller spine ahead of its first dorsal fin, more space between its fins and fewer of the tiny bumps, called tubercles, that dot the tail. To be sure, the researchers went beyond anatomy, sequencing a stretch of DNA nicknamed a \u201cgenetic barcode.\u201d Those sequences diverged from the fish\u2019s closest relatives by 3.9 to 4.7% \u2014 comfortably past the line scientists use to call something a separate species \u2014 and additional analyses agreed the animal represents its own lineage.<\/p>\n

The result is a genuinely new branch on the tree of life, and, notably, the first member of its genus ever described from the Eastern Pacific.<\/p>\n

As Forbes noted, the deep ocean covers most of the planet yet remains one of Earth\u2019s least-mapped frontiers, so a species can\u2019t be protected if no one knows it\u2019s there, a growing concern as fishing, resource extraction and climate change reach ever deeper.<\/p>\n

Read the original article on People<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEED TO KNOW Researchers identified Rhinochimaera costaricana, a new species of ghost shark, in deep waters off Costa…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":837312,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[79,201],"class_list":["post-837311","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-science","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/837311","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=837311"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/837311\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/837312"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=837311"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=837311"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=837311"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}