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American Pocket Shark
Mollisquama mississippiensis
Mollisquama mississippiensis or the American pocket shark is a species of pocket shark native to the Gulf of Mexico. It is the second species of pocket shark to be described.
From the article Mollisquama mississippiensis on Wikipedia (CC BY-SA), quoted section by section
Description
The head is bulbous, resembling that of a whale. The shark is very small, at only 5.5 inches (140 mm). Near the gills are two "pockets" that secrete a luminous fluid which may enable the shark to hunt. The body is grey with the fins being darker. The areas around the gills are cream colored. There are clusters of photophores around the body, which are able to produce light.
== References ==
Where it lives
Recorded sightings
—
geo-referenced records in GBIF, from museums, herbaria and field observers.
Drag the globe to turn it. Dots are where records exist, not a range map; darker means more records.
In the stacks
This page is assembled live from iNaturalist, GBIF, Wikipedia, the Source Library and the Internet Archive. It is not yet part of the hand-edited codex. iNaturalist taxon 1303388.