Goblin sharks (goblin sharks) are deep-sea fish whose intimidating protruding jaws served as the prototype for the creatures in the Alien films.

Little is known about these sharks. They inhabit deep coastal waters around the world but have never been found in the Mediterranean.

A group of scientists (including Greeks) published a scientific study on the discovery of a goblin shark washed ashore in Anafi.

The announcement of the find last year in the journal Mediterranean Marine Science made an impression on the scientific community. What follows raises many questions both among scientists and those who deal with specific issues.

According to the original scientific article, the goblin shark was discovered by Yannis Papadakis in August 2020. Mr. Papadakis placed the creature on the rocks and photographed it. The image ended up in the hands of a local team of scientists, and two years later they published it, along with records of other species first discovered in the Mediterranean.

The scientific team considered their study a success, but soon shark experts from around the world began to express their doubts about the authenticity of the goblin shark.

David Ebert, author of Sharks of the World, said there was something wrong with photography.

“Some things about the shark found in Greece were unusual. It’s very small and its gills don’t seem to be very open, she said. It doesn’t look natural at all,” he said.

He and other experts were also wary because the shark was not immediately examined. The document was based solely on a photograph and a brief description provided by G. Papadakis.

In November, another group of shark researchers published a paper questioning whether a goblin shark found in Greece is a real animal.

“We have doubts that the goblin shark in the original publication ‘is a natural specimen.’ The specimen’s lack of teeth, overly rounded fins, and few gill slits are not characteristic of the goblin shark,” they said.

Shortly after, another image posted on social media further confused the situation. It was a plastic goblin shark toy sold by the Italian toy company DeAgostini and bore a striking resemblance to the goblin shark in the photo.

This toy “bears a strong resemblance to the specimen in the published image,” said Jurgen Pollerspeck, an independent shark researcher who questioned the authenticity of the Greek goblin shark.

Earlier this month, a response came from the scientific group that made the original publication and whose findings have been challenged. In their response, the researchers revised their estimate of the shark’s size from 30 inches to about 7 inches and said the goblin shark in question could be a fetus.

“Embryos of this size are not viable,” replied the author, who initially doubted the existence of a shark.

Last week, the authors of the original article retracted it in its entirety, as well as their own response to the criticism, last week, acknowledging that there was too much vagueness in the conclusion, according to The New York Times.

In any case, whether the shark in this image turns out to be a real fish or just a piece of plastic pollution, critics say publishing and analyzing a single image in a scientific journal requires caution.

Source: New York Times.