A Summary of the Goblin Shark Story

Ok, I'm starting to get a LOT of inquiries about the goblin shark story. Here is a (brief) summary.

Journalists can feel free to use this as background, please do not quote me, I'm not involved and should not get "credit" here. https://t.co/vNRNeMz4FL

— Dr. David Shiffman (@WhySharksMatter) March 17, 2023

Goblin sharks are a super-cool deep sea species.

Someone published a "range extension," which means "scientists used to think this species lived here here and here, we found one over there." In this case, "over there" is the Med. Sea. https://t.co/FQHAO0EMW6 pic.twitter.com/KgTwwYicVC

— Dr. David Shiffman (@WhySharksMatter) March 17, 2023

This range extension immediately raised eyebrows.

The evidence was a photo of a supposed goblin shark on a beach (below) that a citizen took and sent to scientists, the scientists did not examine the specimen. There's no scale bar. Just the one angle.

This is...atypical. pic.twitter.com/OjSaItwrRX

— Dr. David Shiffman (@WhySharksMatter) March 17, 2023

The supposed goblin shark on the beach is also much, much smaller than newborn goblin sharks (which are called "pups" by the way, this is not relevant to the story but I think it's cute).

The scientists reporting this called it an embryo. 🤨

There are other irregularities.

— Dr. David Shiffman (@WhySharksMatter) March 17, 2023

(Do totally intact shark embryos wash up on beaches? I suppose it's theoretically possible, I've personally never heard of it happening.)

(Do not-close-to-term shark embryos look exactly like mini-adults? Almost always no)

— Dr. David Shiffman (@WhySharksMatter) March 17, 2023

A different team of scientists published a "comment" in reply, noting some significant irregularities, noting among other things that this is not what a young goblin shark looks like.

Read it here: https://t.co/Vtu2s54EYO pic.twitter.com/dQSvb3Rk3e

— Dr. David Shiffman (@WhySharksMatter) March 17, 2023

Throughout this discourse I've observed among scientists, though absent from the "comment," was the idea that not only does this not look like a real goblin shark pup....it looks like a plastic toy model of a goblin shark. (H/T Ignacio Contreras) pic.twitter.com/GiPg6dt7XH

— Dr. David Shiffman (@WhySharksMatter) March 17, 2023

Here look at the two side by side: (H/T Matthew McDavitt, who notes that a likely seam from the plastic mold that made the toy is visible in both images) pic.twitter.com/SY6ZkFGzAK

— Dr. David Shiffman (@WhySharksMatter) March 17, 2023

The original authors have doubled down and maintain that the specimen is genuine. You can read their reply to the "comment" here. https://t.co/elPk7qqLlz

— Dr. David Shiffman (@WhySharksMatter) March 17, 2023

So what happened here? I don't know and neither does anyone else. But in general, without knowing most of the people involved, without knowing what goes on in peoples' hearts, and only knowing publicly reported details, I can think of three possibilities.

— Dr. David Shiffman (@WhySharksMatter) March 17, 2023

1) A goblin shark embryo was found really far from the known range of goblin sharks, and despite it having significant irregularities and looking a lot like a specific plastic toy model, this is genuine, though atypically documented in a way that raises eyebrows.

— Dr. David Shiffman (@WhySharksMatter) March 17, 2023

2) Some dude sent scientists a single atypically documented photo of a plastic toy goblin shark, they believed it to be a genuine biological specimen of scientific importance, and they published a range extension.

— Dr. David Shiffman (@WhySharksMatter) March 17, 2023

3) Some scientists behaved unethically and claimed that something they knew was not a genuine speciment of scientific interest was a genuine specimen of scientific interest.

— Dr. David Shiffman (@WhySharksMatter) March 17, 2023

(I want to be clear that I do not have the information or evidence or background necessary to accuse someone I've never met of misconduct. Just saying it's a possible explanation I've seen mentioned by others).

— Dr. David Shiffman (@WhySharksMatter) March 17, 2023

So that's where we are now I guess.

— Dr. David Shiffman (@WhySharksMatter) March 17, 2023