Mystery behind photo of lost goblin shark that baffled world is finally solved

One of science's most recent deep sea mysteries has been finally solved.

Last year, scientists from Greece released a report claiming that they had found and studied a rare species of shark which had ended up in the Mediterranean sea, despite never having been found there before.

The Goblin Shark, is normally only fond in areas such as the Gulf of Mexico, Suriname, French Guiana and southern Brazil.

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But scientists around the world were left utterly baffled when news emerged – with a photo – of one ending up in Greece.

The rare deep-sea shark is sometimes calling a “living fossil” as its lineage dates back around 125 million years.

And having never been found in the Mediterranean during that time, news of it doing so caused scientific chaos.

The science paper came out in May, but by November a group of experts claimed it was fake.

A comment from several top boffins said: “On close examination of this image… doubts arise about the authenticity.”

And Jürgen Pollerspöck, an independent shark researcher, claimed that it was a “model of such a shark”.

But now, according to Dr David Shiffman, a shark expert from Arizona State University in the United States, it really is a toy shark – and he took to Twitter to prove it.

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The top shark expert simply tweeted out an image of a box from toy company DeAgostini called Sharks & Co.

Inside the box was a toy shark, which looks exactly like the one the Greek experts claimed was a real goblin shark.

And several diagrams have been made pointing out how the toy shark is just very degraded, having been sitting in the sea for what appears to be a long time.

No comment has yet been made by the original finders of the supposed-Goblin Shark.

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