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'Don't Go In The Water!' The Rare & Incredibly Ugly Goblin Shark Will Have You Crying Tears Of 'Nope'

The goblin shark, one of which was recently caught by fisherman off the coast of Eden, New South Wales, Australia, is pure and utter nightmare fuel.

It's got a weird, floppy pink mouth that opens like something HR Giger might have dreamt up after too much cheese, or like something from a distorted, tortured Francis Bacon painting.

The shark was given to the Australian Museum for their collection, who described the creature as "beautiful." The one good thing about it is you've not much chance of coming into contact with one.

A deep sea creature it's found at depths of 300-feet below the surface and dates back around 125 million years, so is often called a "living fossil."

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Photo: Billy Ryan, © Australian Museum

Writing about this abomination of the deep the Australia Museum say:

What makes the rarely seen Goblin Shark, Mitsukurina owstoni, so unusual is its bizarre ‘alien-like’ jaw mechanism. As its jaws close, two ligaments are stretched. The act of opening the mouth releases the tension on the ligaments resulting in the jaws being thrust forward.

One of the other weird-looking things about this shark is its long flattened snout, the lower side of which is covered with pores. These are the openings to the ‘ampullae of Lorenzini’, a sensory system that allows the electroreception of prey. Food items are believed to include fishes, octopuses, squids, shrimps and crabs.

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Sleep well.

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