Cool Thing of the Week

August 25, 2008 - 4:46 pm
Irradiated by Stingray
8 Comments

Since I don’t speak Japanese other than the eigth-assed bit I picked up for one semester in college, I have no idea what the narrator is saying. The translation in my head is roughly “Hey, look at this really cool and underappreciated shark. Not much is known about this elusive deep-water shark, compared to other species but they do have several unique HOLY SHIT I DIDN’T KNOW IT COULD DO THAT! Hey, come check this out!”

Of course, my translation skills are a tad rusty.

I knew “normal” species of sharks can do some fairly nifty gymnastics with their jaw structures, but this just puts them all flat out to shame.

8 Responses to “Cool Thing of the Week”

  1. BobG Says:

    Reminds me of Alien, the way the critter had the internal jaws it could use for striking out.

  2. John Says:

    I was watching that, and…HOLY SHIT! Extendable jaws!

  3. MarkHB Says:

    Mmm-hm. Right with BobG here. I have an urge to thump it with a power-loader and toss it out the airlock. Nature’s not only red in tooth and claw, it’s also way wierder than science fiction.

  4. FabioC. Says:

    At least there are no tentacles involved.

  5. Never Yet Melted » Japanese Goblin Shark Says:

    [...] Atomic Nerds via Karen L. Myers. By JDZ Feedbacks on this entry via RSS 2.0 Please leave a Comment or [...]

  6. Kristopher Says:

    All sharks have extendable jaws.

    This one extends a bit farther than most.

  7. HTRN Says:

    BobG, you might be interest to know that the jaw bit from Aliens was inspired by the Moray Eel, which has a similar, but less extreme set of jaws down it’s throat that it can extend, albiet not outside it’s mouth.

  8. BobG Says:

    I’ve seen photos of Moray jaws, and they are similar. I’m thinking this variety of shark has them to overcome the long “nose” that would make it awkward to get close to prey.