Hemiscyllium

Hemiscyllium is a genus of sharks in the family Hemiscylliidae.

Hemiscyllium
Hemiscyllium ocellatum
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Chondrichthyes
Order: Orectolobiformes
Family: Hemiscylliidae
Genus: Hemiscyllium
Species

See text

Overview

This genus is confined to tropical waters off Australia, Papua New Guinea, and Indonesia, but an individual from this genus, possibly representing an undescribed species, has been photographed at the Seychelles.[1] They have short snouts with the nostrils placed almost at the tip, and well-elevated eyes and supraorbital ridges. The mouth is closer to the tip of the snout than the eyes, and lacks the connecting dermal fold across the chin. The pectoral and pelvic fins are thick and heavily muscular. Either a black hood on the head or a large black spot on the sides of the body is present,[2]though juveniles often are strongly marked with dark spots/bars.

Some species are known as "walking sharks."[3]

In January 2020, marine biologists at the School of Biomedical Sciences at the University of Queensland in Australia announced new findings that provide evidence that genus Hemiscyllium, also known as "walking sharks", was the newest genus of sharks in terms of historical findings on biological evolution.[4]

List of species

Nine recognized species are in this genus:[5][6]

References
  1. Debelius, H. (1993). Indian Ocean Tropical Fish Guide. Aquaprint Verlags GmbH. ISBN 3-927991-01-5
  2. Compagno, Leonard J.V. (1984). Sharks of the World: An Annotated and Illustrated Catalogue of Shark Species Known to Date. Rome: Food and Agriculture Organization. ISBN 92-5-101384-5.
  3. "Walking sharks discovered in the tropics". UQ News. The University of Queensland. 2020-01-21.
  4. Marine Biologists Solve Mystery of How ‘Walking’ Sharks Split, Jan 23, 2020 by Natali Anderson,An international team of marine biologists has found that members of the genus Hemiscyllium are the ‘youngest’ — as in, the most recently evolved — sharks to ever walk (or swim) our planet.
  5. Froese, Rainer and Pauly, Daniel, eds. (2013). Species of Hemiscyllium in FishBase. April 2013 version.
  6. Allen, G.R.; Erdmann, M.V. & Dudgeon, C.L. (2013). "Hemiscyllium halmahera, a new species of Bamboo Shark (Hemiscylliidae) from Indonesia" (PDF). Aqua, International Journal of Ichthyology. 19 (3): 123–136.
  7. Allen, Gerald R. & Erdmann, Mark V. (2008). "Two new species of bamboo sharks (Orectolobiformes: Hemiscylliidae) from Western New Guinea" (PDF). Aqua (Miradolo Terme). 13 (3–4): 93–108.
  8. Allen, Gerald R. & Dudgeon, Christine L. (2010). "Hemiscyllium michaeli, a new species of Bamboo Shark (Hemiscyllidae) from Papua New Guinea". Aqua International Journal of Ichthyology. 16 (1): 19–30.
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