This pink-skinned animal has a distinctive profile with an elongated, flat snout, and highly protrusible jaws containing prominent nail-like teeth.

[3] Goblin sharks are benthopelagic creatures that inhabit upper continental slopes, submarine canyons, and seamounts throughout the world at depths greater than 100 m (330 ft), with adults found deeper than juveniles.

[3] Various anatomical features of the goblin shark, such as its flabby body and small fins, suggest that it is sluggish in nature.

Its long snout is covered with ampullae of Lorenzini that enable it to sense minute electric fields produced by nearby prey, which it can snatch up by rapidly extending its jaws.

The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has assessed it as Least Concern, despite its rarity, citing its wide distribution and low incidence of capture.

American ichthyologist David Starr Jordan described the goblin shark in an 1898 issue of Proceedings of the California Academy of Sciences, recognizing the peculiar fish not only as a new species, but also a new genus and family.

The specimen had been acquired by shipmaster and naturalist Alan Owston, who had given it to Professor Kakichi Mitsukuri at the University of Tokyo, who in turn brought it to Jordan.

[2] Soon after Jordan's description was published, several scientists noted the similarity between Mitsukurina and the extinct Mesozoic shark Scapanorhynchus.

Eventually, more complete fossils revealed many anatomical differences between Scapanorhynchus and Mitsukurina, causing modern authors to again regard them as distinct genera.

This taxonomic confusion began because the specimens' jaws were fixed at varying degrees of protrusion during preservation, giving the appearance of proportional differences among the heads.

[11][12] The family Mitsukurinidae, represented by Mitsukurina, Scapanorhynchus, and Anomotodon, dates back to the Aptian age of the Cretaceous period (c. 125–113 Ma).

Mitsukurina itself first appears in the fossil record during the period Middle Eocene (c. 49–37 Ma);[13][14] extinct species include M. lineata and M.

[7][20] The soft, semi-translucent skin has a rough texture from a covering of dermal denticles, each shaped like a short upright spine with lengthwise ridges.

[5] However, the capture of an enormous female estimated at 5.4–6.2 m (18–20 ft) long during 2000 showed this species can grow far larger than suspected previously.

In the Atlantic Ocean, it has been recorded from the northern Gulf of Mexico, Suriname, French Guiana, and southern Brazil in the west, and France, Portugal, Madeira, and Senegal in the east.

[33] Its skeleton is reduced and poorly calcified, the muscle blocks along its sides (myomeres) are weakly developed, and its fins are soft and small.

The long snout appears to have a sensory function, as it bears numerous ampullae of Lorenzini that can detect the weak electric fields produced by other animals.

[29] Parasites documented from this species include the copepod Echthrogaleus mitsukurinae,[34] and the tapeworms Litobothrium amsichensis and Marsupiobothrium gobelinus.

Its low-density flesh and large oily liver make it neutrally buoyant, allowing it to drift towards its prey with minimal motions so as to avoid detection.

[7] At the same time, the well-developed basihyal (analogous to a tongue) on the floor of the mouth drops, expanding the oral cavity and sucking in water and prey.

[8] Striking and prey capture events were videotaped and recorded for the first time during 2008 and 2011 and helped to confirm the use and systematics of the protrusible jaws of goblin sharks.

It likely shares the reproductive characteristics of other mackerel sharks, which are viviparous with small litter sizes and embryos that grow during gestation by eating undeveloped eggs (oophagy).

[41] This shark is not targeted by any fisheries, but is occasionally found as bycatch in bottom gillnets and trawls, hooked on longlines, or entangled in fishing gear.

During April 2003, more than a hundred goblin sharks were caught off northwestern Taiwan; the cause of the event was unknown, though observers noted it was preceded by a major earthquake.