An occasional series on weird and wonderful animals continues with the goblin shark after spotting an article at Pravda.

Goblin Sharks are not pretty creatures which is presumably why they live in the ocean depths and are not seen at your local sea life centre or the would scare the bejesus out of just about everyone who clapped eyes on them.

A little wiki background :

The goblin shark, Mitsukurina owstoni, is a deep-sea shark, the sole living species in the family Mitsukurinidae. The most distinctive characteristic of the goblin shark is the unorthodox shape of its head. It has a long, trowel-shaped, beak-like rostrum or snout, much longer than other sharks’ snouts. Some other distinguishing characteristics of the shark are the color of its body, which is mostly pink, and its long, protrusible jaws. When the jaws are retracted, the shark resembles a pink grey nurse shark, Carcharias taurus, with an unusually long nose.

They truly are hideous :

I would not be want to be gummed by that thing with those snaggle teeth.

And, it gets worse when you see them in daylight :

Coming face to face with one of those on a dive would probably result in a rather putrid wet suit and a grim looking diver.

The post title is a reference to the (possibly local) term for being in need of serious beer goggles in case you were wondering.