Scientists Just Discovered a Weird New Shark That Glows in The Dark

Say hello to the ninja lanternshark, a species of shark that has only just been discovered. It's really weird. It hides in the deep - and its black skin keeps it camouflaged - but it also glows in the dark.

The ninja lanternshark was discovered by a team at the Pacific Shark Research Centre, in Moss Landing, California. Its official Latin name is Etmopterus benchleyi, after Jaws author Peter Benchley.

But its common name was coined by the cousins of researcher Vicky Vásquez. The four of them, aged 8 to 14, suggested "super ninja shark", but she scaled it back, according to Hakai magazine.

The ninja lanternshark is roughly half a metre, or 18 inches long, and it lives at a depth of about 1,000 metres off the Pacific Coast of Central America. Its odd combo of dark and light helps it creep up on its prey, Vásquez believes.

The discovery was reported in a recent edition of the Journal of the Ocean Science Foundation. 

Dr Douglas Long and Ross Robertson/JOSF

This article was originally published by Business Insider.