New Shark Species Discovered

Meet Bythaelurus giddingsi, a mild-mannered, deep-sea denizen of the Galapagos Islands -- and the world's newest known species of shark.

The animal's chocolate-brown color and asymmetrical distribution of leopard-like spots distinguish it from other closely related species, most of which are spotless brown or gray, explains Douglas Long, a senior curator of natural sciences at the Oakland Museum of California.

“The discovery of a new shark species is always interesting, particularly at this time when sharks are facing such incredible human pressure,” says McCosker, who led the two Galapagos expeditions and collected the very first specimen B. giddingsi. McCosker continues:

“Many species have become locally rare and others verge on extinction due to their capture for shark-fin soup. The damage to food webs is dramatic in that their absence removes their ecological services as top-level predators, which are often replaced by other species that further imbalance ecosystems. This deepwater species is probably not susceptible to fishing, however as an insular endemic its population is probably limited in size and would be more susceptible to fishing pressure than more widely distributed species.”

B. giddingsi is the latest in a string of some 200 new species of sharks, rays and chimeras that biologists have discovered and described in just the past six years.

Discovery News