The goblin shark looks like a deep-sea horror movie come to life. It has pale pinkish skin, a long pointy snout, beady eyes, and oddly small teeth that you can sometimes glimpse inside its closed mouth. Then it opens that mouth - and the rules of normal-looking fish completely break.
When prey gets within range, the goblin shark’s whole jaw apparatus shoots forward out of its head, extending up to 3 inches beyond the snout. The teeth - suddenly large and visible - clamp shut on the prey, and then the whole jaw pulls back into the face. It happens in less than a second.
Scientists call it the most extreme example of “slingshot feeding” in any fish. The shark is also a living fossil: its family has been around for about 125 million years, barely changing, drifting through the deep ocean shadows since the days of the dinosaurs.
