A team of Costa Rican and Brazilian researchers has identified a new species of deep-sea fish in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Costa Rica, adding to the country's known marine biodiversity and highlighting how much of its deep-water ecosystems remain unexplored.
The newly described species, Rhinochimaera costaricana, belongs to a group of cartilaginous fishes known as long-nosed chimaeras, or ghost sharks. Although they are related to sharks and rays, chimaeras represent a separate evolutionary lineage that has existed for hundreds of millions of years.
