''Mitsukurina'' is a

genus Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...

mackerel shark The Lamniformes (, from Greek ''lamna'' "fish of prey") are an order of sharks commonly known as mackerel sharks (which may also refer specifically to the family Lamnidae). It includes some of the most familiar species of sharks, such as the g ...

in the

family Family (from ) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). It forms the basis for social order. Ideally, families offer predictabili ...

Mitsukurinidae Mitsukurinidae is a family of sharks with one living genus, '' Mitsukurina'', and four fossil genera: ''Anomotodon'', '' Protoscapanorhynchus'', ''Scapanorhynchus'', and '' Woellsteinia'', though some taxonomists consider ''Scapanorhynchus'' to b ...

. It contains one extant species, the

goblin shark The goblin shark (''Mitsukurina owstoni'') is a rare species of deep-sea shark. Sometimes called a "living fossil", it is the only extant representative of the family Mitsukurinidae, a lineage some 125 million years old. This pink-skinned ani ...

(''M. owstoni'') and more

extinct Extinction is the termination of an organism by the death of its Endling, last member. A taxon may become Functional extinction, functionally extinct before the death of its last member if it loses the capacity to Reproduction, reproduce and ...

species. The genus was described by American

ichthyologist Ichthyology is the branch of zoology devoted to the study of fish, including bony fish (Osteichthyes), cartilaginous fish (Chondrichthyes), and jawless fish (Agnatha). According to FishBase, 35,800 species of fish had been described as of March 2 ...

David Starr Jordan David Starr Jordan (January 19, 1851 – September 19, 1931) was the founding president of Stanford University, serving from 1891 to 1913. He was an ichthyologist during his research career. Prior to serving as president of Stanford Universi ...

in 1898 and named in honour of

Kakichi Mitsukuri was a Japanese zoologist. Biography Kakichi Mitsukuri was born in Edo. In 1873 he came to the United States, where he received a Ph.D. degree from Yale in 1879 and from Johns Hopkins in 1883. He was appointed professor in the college of scien ...

Species

* †'' Mitsukurina lineata'' (Probst, 1879) * †'' Mitsukurina maslinensis'' (Pledge, 1967) * '' Mitsukurina owstoni'' Jordan, 1898 (goblin shark)

References

Bartonian first appearances Extant Eocene first appearances Shark genera Taxa named by David Starr Jordan Fish genera with one living species {{shark-stub