Episode 25: The Pocket Shark’s Secret Glow
from Strange Bites Hosted by Lance Martin
It’s February 4, 2010. The Gulf of Mexico is black as ink at midnight, hundreds of miles off Louisiana. The NOAA ship Pisces rocks gently on the waves, its crew chasing sperm whale, those massive giants that dive deeper than any submarine. They’re not hunting sharks. They’re just mapping what the whales eat, dragging a big trawl net through the deep, pitch-black waters like a fisherman casting into the unknown. They haul up the net, and among the usual squirmy fish and squid is something tiny. No bigger than your hand. Fourteen centimeters long. A baby shark. Sources 1. Grace et al. (2019) – Original scientific description of the new species: https://biotaxa.org/Zootaxa/article/view/zootaxa.4619.1.4 2. NOAA Fisheries Feature Story (2019): https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/feature-story/tiny-shark-fits-your-pocket-and-glows-dark 3. Tulane University News (2019): https://news.tulane.edu/pr/researchers-identify-new-species-pocket-shark 4. Claes et al. (2020) – Histological study proving the bioluminescent fluid: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-75656-8 5. Wikipedia summary with full references: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mollisquama_mississippiensis 6. Sci.News coverage (2019): https://www.sci.news/biology/american-pocket-shark-07422.html
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