The article describes the mysterious ghost shark and its unusual reproductive organs. The female's organs are normal for sharks, having two sets of everything. But the male is where it gets weird. The male organ is a retractable organ on the head of the shark. It has clasps to latch on to the female during reproduction. On top of the weird placement of the male organ, the female has control over when the egg is fertilized. This allows the female to fertilize the egg in one location, and lay the egg in another. This is an adaptation due to the menial resources at these depths. It allows the egg to be laid when conditions are best. Scientists estimate the female to be able to wait years until she fertilizes the egg. The sharks also have a collection of nerve endings in their mouth to help them locate the food at the dark and murky depths of the ocean.
This article was very interesting to me because of how strange and unusual it was. Unlike my other article on the Chinese white dolphin, this article was much easier to read for it did not just contain raw facts.
Animals are pretty weird lol. A retractable organ is something I never knew was a thing. Add to that... it's located on it's head. Also, not sure how I feel about the female having the choice when to fertilize the egg. The male is probably like "cmon sally, it's been two months, I just want the kid already." Anyways good skuzz on this article bro. #RTC #JTT
ReplyDeleteThat's pretty weird that the reproductive organ is on its head. It's also cool that the female can wait years before the egg is fertilized so that the conditions can be the best. This sounds like a very interesting article.
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