A lixa shark with vibrant orange skin and strangely white eyes may be the result of a rare genetic combination: xanthochrome and albinism.
In 2024, a group of sports fishermen captured, off the east coast of Costa Rica, a unique copy of a lix (Ginglymostoma cirratum).
Besides presenting a skin of a vibrant orangethe eyes of this copy were strangely white, which makes the animal, two meters long, an absolutely singular discovery.
After the capture, the unusual orange-colored shark returned to the sea.
Like scientists could not analyze the live animalit is impossible to know for sure because it had orange skin, but it is suspected that the main cause is in a rare genetic combination: Xantochrome and Albinism.
Like the very rare orange alligators of Central Africa, this unusual shark surprised not only fishermen that caught him, but also the experts, who They had never observed something similar In nature, it counts.
A team of investigators who analyzed photographs of the animal concluded, in a published last month in the magazine Marine Biodiversitythat its unusual color was due to a condition known as Xantochrome, or Xanthismin which the skin has a yellowish tone due to the absence of pigments dark.
It is also believed that this specimen had another condition that causes absence of pigment production: albinism.
Lixa sharks are already, by themselves, unusualsince they do not have the gray color typical of most sharks. Instead, they have a brownish-yellowish tone that can reach dark brown.
However, as researchers in the study now published, since the lounge shark seemed to be an adult, the combination of xanthism and albinism does not seem to have affected its survival capacity.
This is significant, not only because animals normally evolve with colors that help them survive in the middle where they live, but also because it increases the probability that there are more specimens with this appearance Unique in the Caribbean Sea, which, if they are survived, may be studied in the future.
Although it is believed that Xantochrome has genetic originthe study stresses that There may be other factors in play in this specific case.
O environmental stress and increased temperatures They may have played a role, and investigators also refer that endogamy or hormonal imbalances can also explain the unique aspect of this specimen.
The authors of the study stress that further research will be needed to identify the exact causes of this rare pigmentation.
