What Exactly Is: Pocket Shark | One of the Rarest Shark

We only ever found two specimens of pocket shark, each belonging to a different species. That makes both of them arguably one of, if not the rarest shark species that we currently know. There's a lot of uncertainties caused by the lack of specimen, but we could hypothesize their lifestyle to some extent by looking at their relatives.


Timestamps
0:00 Opening Thought
0:47 Taxonomy and Discovery
3:53 Morphology
8:15 Lifestyle and Uncertainties


References
Grace, M. A., Doosey, M. H., Bart, H. L., & Naylor, G. J. P. (2015). First record of Mollisquama sp. (Chondrichthyes: Squaliformes: Dalatiidae) from the Gulf of Mexico, with a morphological comparison to the holotype description of Mollisquama parini Dolganov. Zootaxa, 3948(3). https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.3948...

Denton, J. S. S., Maisey, J. G., Grace, M., Pradel, A., Doosey, M. H., Bart, H. L., Jr, & Naylor, G. J. P. (2018). Cranial morphology in Mollisquama sp. (Squaliformes; Dalatiidae) and patterns of cranial evolution in dalatiid sharks. Journal of anatomy, 233(1), 15–32. https://doi.org/10.1111/joa.12823

Grace, M. A., Doosey, M. H., Denton, J. S. S., Naylor, G. J. P., Bart, H. L. J., & Maisey, J. G. (2019). A new Western North Atlantic Ocean kitefin shark (Squaliformes: Dalatiidae) from the Gulf of Mexico. Zootaxa, 4619(1), zootaxa.4619.1.4. https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.4619...

Kyne, P.M. & Herman, K. (2020). Mollisquama mississippiensis. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2020: e.T153198442A153199019. https://dx.doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.UK.20....

Kyne, P.M., Ebert, D.A., Concha, F. & Herman, K. (2020). Mollisquama parini. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2020: e.T44515A124432387. https://dx.doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.UK.20....


Thumbnail Image
M. Doosey


Outro
The Soundlings - Silent Night (Youtube Library)


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