Source: Forbes
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Another week, another new shark species! While many can believe that scientists find new species in the ocean, swimming around freely… that isn’t always the case. In fact, it is rarely the case. The place where most researchers find new species is in fish markets.
The discovery of this shark goes back a little more than a decade now. A never-before-seen shark species was brought to the fishing harbor in Kochi (also known as Cochin), a city in southwest India’s coastal Kerala state. The fishermen who brought in this odd-looking species were fishing for sharks of economic importance from the deep-sea in the Indian Ocean. Uninterested in the two-foot-long animal, they tossed it aside and gave it no further thought until researchers from the Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute (CMFRI) came to the fishing harbor for observations of the landings.
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