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They’re called��ghost sharks: strikingly coloured, yet rarely spotted creatures that love the cold, dark depths of the ocean.��

Now, scientists report the waters of Australia and New Zealand are home to a distinct species of the mysterious animal — but it’s not known how many of them exist.��

The new ghost shark — collected in the Chatham Rise off New Zealand’s coast during earlier surveys — was initially thought to be part of a globally distributed species, until research revealed it to be genetically and morphologically different from its cousins.��

Formally named chimaeras — and otherwise nicknamed ratfish, rabbitfish and elephant fish — ghost sharks are closely related to sharks and rays, but appear more like cartilaginous fish.��

They have smooth skin free of scales, and feed on crustaceans such as shrimp and molluscs with their distinctive beak-like teeth.��

“They eat a lot of benthic organisms: anything that’s kind of crunchy and lives on the sea floor,” Niwa fisheries scientist Dr Brit Finucci said.��

Their embryos also develop��in egg capsules laid on the ocean floor, feeding off a yolk until they’re ready to hatch.��

Ghost shark embryos develop in egg capsules laid on the sea floor and feed off yolk until they are ready to hatch.��

Finucci said the species she described — the Australasian narrow-nosed spookfish — was set apart by its “incredibly long nose”.��

“When they’re quite small, their snout length can be half the length of their body, so that’s quite an important feature for these guys,” she said.��

“They’ve also got large eyes, which is quite common in a lot of deep-sea species, and these beautiful, large pectoral fins, which makes them glide in the water.”��

In a touching tribute, Finucci gave the species the scientific name Harriotta avia, in memory of her grandmother.��

“Avia means grandmother in Latin; I wanted to give this nod to her because she proudly supported me through my career as a scientist,” she said.��

“Chimaeras are also rather ancient relatives — the grandmas and grandpas — of fish and I thought the name was well suited.”��

Finucci said ghost sharks such as this one were confined largely to the ocean floor, living in depths of up to 2600m — meaning humans were unlikely to encounter them.��

“Their habitat makes them hard to study and monitor, meaning we don’t know a lot about their biology or threat status, but it makes discoveries like this even more exciting.”��

Although discovered in recent decades, it’s thought ghost sharks have been around for hundreds of millions of years.��

Jamie Morton is a specialist in science and environmental reporting. He joined the��Herald��in 2011 and writes about everything from conservation and climate change to natural hazards and new technology.��