AMERICAN Pocket Shark

I was part of a collaboration that described the features of this unique mid-water shark and made comparisons to the holotype specimen of Mollisquama parini. Hundreds of media outlets ran stories about this unusual animal after our paper was published in Zootaxa in 2015. I have continued to be part of research a collaboration that focuses on the anatomy of the Pocket Shark. The whole specimen was scanned using X-ray microtomography and images were segmented at the American Museum of Natural History. Check out the video made by AMNH staff.

We described the anatomy of the chondrocranium, jaws, teeth, hyoid apparatus, and jaw muscles, and this article was recently published in Journal of Anatomy. Take a look at the cover art designed by lead author, John Denton.

The Gulf of Mexico specimen is now recognized as a new species, Mollisquama mississippiensis. Download the PDF or follow the link to the article in Zootaxa.

Download the PDFs

Grace, M.A., Doosey, M.H, Naylor, G.J.P, Bart, H.L. 2015. First record of Mollisquama sp. (Chondrichthyes: Squaliformes: Dalatiidae) from the Gulf of Mexico, with a morphological comparison to the holotype description of Mollisquama parini Dolganov. Zootaxa 3948:587-600. PDF

Denton, J.S.S., Maisey, J.G., Grace, M., Pradel, A., Doosey, M.H., Bart, H.L., Jr., Naylor, G.J.P. 2018. Cranial morphology in Mollisquama sp. (Squaliformes; Dalatiidae) and patterns of cranial evolution in dalatiid sharks. Journal of Anatomy 233:15-32. PDF

Grace, M.A., Doosey, M.H., Denton, J.S.S., Naylor, G.J.P., Bart, H.L., Jr., Maisey, J.G. 2019. A new Western North Atlantic Ocean kitefin shark (Squaliformes: Dalatiidae) from the Gulf of Mexico. Zootaxa 4619:109-120. https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.4619.1.4 PDF

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