A team of researchers discovered a strange new shark and named it after one of the most famous shark enthusiasts in the world.
Dubbed Etmopterus benchleyi, or the "Ninja Lanternshark," the fish is named after Peter Benchley, the author of the novel-turned-major-motion-picture "Jaws" and a noted shark enthusiast and conservationist.
"We don't know a lot about lanternsharks. They don't get much recognition compared to a great white," study lead author Vicky Vásquez, a graduate student at the Pacific Shark Research Center (PSRC) in California, told Hakai Magazine. "So when it came to this shark I wanted to give it an interesting story."
The study, published in the Journal of the Ocean Science Foundation, detailed a shark as black as night with cells that allow it to glow in the deepest depths of the ocean.
"The common name we have suggested refers to the shark's color, which is a uniform sleek black as well as the fact that it has fewer photophores than other species of Lanternsharks," Vásquez told The Huffington Post. "We felt those unique characteristics would make this species stealthy like a ninja."
The researchers discovered the shark and identified it as belonging to a previously unidentified species after finding an individual's body at the California Academy of Sciences.
"About 20 percent of all shark species have been discovered in just the last ten years," study co-author Dave Ebert, program director for the PSRC, told Hakai. "My whole research is looking for 'lost sharks.'"
