A research was carried out to study a new species of glowing shark. The study appeared in the December edition of the Journal of the Ocean Science Foundation. The lead author of the paper, Vicky Vásquez, has given a more common name to the species, ninja lanternshark. The species were originally named Etmopterus benchleyi. This shark was found in 2010 offshore continental slope in the Pacific Ocean.

Special organs are utilized by the shark to glow, which helps it to communicate with other lanternsharks and also draws the prey. This shark dwells half a mile to one mile under the ocean. This is the reason for scientists not being able to comprehensively analyze the behavior and eating pattern of the shark, which is capable of enlightening environment by its dimly glowing head.

Until now, scientists have been able to discover almost 40 species of glowing sharks, which are commonly known as lantersharks. According to Vicky Vásquez, these species are mostly found in the Indian, Atlantic and Pacific oceans. She added that the new research involves discovering a lanternshark offshore Pacific Ocean in Central America for the first time.

Eight lanternsharks were discovered by researchers 0.5 miles to 0.9 miles (0.8 to 1.4 kilometers) underwater in 2010. However, researchers were unable to conduct a complete analysis of all the data collected on the sharks. The new research on the data then collected reveals that the new species are uniformly black in color, with a varied number and distribution of photophores, that allow the shark to glow.