A new species of deep-sea shark with bright white eyes has finally been identified, decades after a dead pregnant female of the species was first collected off the coast of Western Australia. The "ghost" shark was initially misidentified, and was only pegged as a new species after scientists took a second look at its bizarre egg cases that had languished in museum storage for years.
The newfound species, which was described in a new study published April 23 in the Journal of Fish Biology, has been named Apristurus ovicorrugatus, which is derived from the Latin for egg, "ovi," and "corrugatus," meaning corrugated, in reference to the corrugated egg cases that led to the species' discovery.
