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Baby Catshark Still Developing in its Eggcase Filmed on the Seafloor

Baby Catshark Still Developing in its Eggcase Filmed on the Seafloor

Earlier this week, NOAA’s deep sea expedition team on board the Okeanos Explorer came across an incredible find: a baby shark still developing inside its transparent egg case. The baby shark, likely a catshark, was filmed at a depth of 820 feet (250 m) west of the Desecheo Island, an uninhabited island part of the archipelago of Puerto Rico (NOAA, 2018).

NOAA Ship Okeanos Explorer report on their…

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Featured Species: Scalloped Hammerhead (Sphyrna lewini)

Featured Species: Scalloped Hammerhead (Sphyrna lewini)

This week’s featured species is another one of my favorite species (have you been counting how many “favorites” I have?!): the Scalloped Hammerhead (Sphyrna lewini). The first time I ever saw a scalloped hammerhead was at the Monterey Bay Aquarium in their breath taking Open Sea exhibit. The way she glided by so effortlessly with just a smooth swish of her caudal fin, and could turn on a dime…

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Featured Species: Atlantic Stingray (Hypanus sabinus)

Featured Species: Atlantic Stingray (Hypanus sabinus)

This week’s featured species is a relatively small elasmobranch that has recently made some big waves. The Atlantic Stingray (Hypanus sabinus) is a small ray, only measuring about 1.5 feet (0.45 m) across, found in the Western Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico. This species is characterized by a yellow-brown dorsal side with an elongated snout, and white ventral belly. This ray is member of the family…

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Featured Species: Genie's Dogfish (Squalus clarkae)

Featured Species: Genie’s Dogfish (Squalus clarkae)

This week’s featured species was described earlier this year as a new deep water species. A paper published in Zootaxa in July of this year revealed that after DNA testing and morphological comparisons the Genie’a Dogfish was a unique species, and not a Shortspine spurdogs (Squalus mitsukurii), as previously thought (Pfleger, Grubbs, Cotton, Daly-Engel, 2018). Genie’s dogfish is characterized by…

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Featured Species: Daggernose Shark (Isogomphodon oxyrhynchus)

Featured Species: Daggernose Shark (Isogomphodon oxyrhynchus)

This week’s featured species is not well known, and likely never will be, because the Daggernose shark (Isogomphodon oxyrhynchus) is critically endangered and is likely facing extinction. The daggernose shark is so named for its elongated, flattened snout, that vaguely resembles the goblin shark’s. In fact its scientific name, Isogomphodon, is Greek for “equal nail tooth” and, oxyrhynchus, for…

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Featured Species: Bat Eagle Ray (Myliobatis californica)

Featured Species: Bat Eagle Ray (Myliobatis californica)

It’s the Halloween edition of Featured Species Friday! This week we are taking a closer look at a species that was named for its bat-like wings, the Bat Eagle Ray (Myliobatis californica). The bat eagle ray is a broad, angular shaped ray that can grow to up to 6 feet (1.8 m) across. It also has a round, protruding head that adds to its batty appearance. Like many species of ray, they have no…

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Featured Species: Green Sawfish (Pristis zijsron)

Featured Species: Green Sawfish (Pristis zijsron)

This week’s Featured Species is celebrating International Sawfish Day, which happened earlier this week on October 17th. Today we examine the largest of the sawfishes, the Green Sawfish (Pristis zijsron)- which I highly recommend you see in person if you can. These animals are just awe-inspiring. No videos or photos I can show you will be able to capture the true beauty of seeing one glide over…

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Featured Species: Dusky Smoothhound (Mustelus canis)

Featured Species: Dusky Smoothhound (Mustelus canis)

This week’s Featured Species is one of the 46 species of hound sharks that belong to the family Triakidae. The dusky smoothhound shark, also known as the smooth dogfish, (Mustelus canis) is a relatively small shark species, reaching lengths up to 5 feet (1.5 m). It has a long, slender body, with two dorsal fins of roughly equal size, and large eyes. I must admit the first time I ever saw these…

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Featured Species Friday: Bull Shark (Carcharhinus leucas)

Featured Species Friday: Bull Shark (Carcharhinus leucas)

This week’s featured species is named for its large, blunt snout. The bull shark (Carcharhinus leucas) is a powerhouse of a shark that is known to aggressively defend its territory with great bursts of speed (Parker, 2008).

Kok, A. (Photographer). (n.d.). Bull Shark (Carcharhinus leucas) [Digital Image]. Retrieved from https://a-z-animals.com/

The bull shark hunts a wide variety of prey including…

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Featured Species Friday: Bonnethead Shark (Sphyrna tiburo)

Featured Species Friday: Bonnethead Shark (Sphyrna tiburo)

This week’s Featured Species takes a closer look at the first known shark species to be omnivorous: the Bonnethead Shark (Sphyrna tiburo) (Leigh, Papastamatiou, & German, 2018). The bonnethead shark is the smallest member of family Sphyrnidae, which includes the hammerhead sharks:

Scientific Name Common Name IUCN Status Eusphyra blochii Winghead shark Endangered Sphyrna coronaScall…

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Featured Species Friday: Crocodile shark (Pseudocarcharias kamoharia)

This week’s Featured Species is a deep sea shark that we still don’t know much about. The crocodile shark (Pseudocarcharias kamoharia) is a member of the order Lamniformes and is the only member of its family Pseudocarchariidae (Skomal, 2016; Parker, 2008). It is the smallest of the Lamniformes sharks, measuring only 3.6 feet (1.09 m) when fully grown. They are a cigar-shaped shark with a…

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Featured Species Friday: Cownose Ray (Rhinoptera bonasus)

Featured Species Friday: Cownose Ray (Rhinoptera bonasus)

This Friday’s Featured Species profile is going to the flat sharks: the stingrays! The Cownose Ray (Rhinoptera bonasus) is one of my favorite species. They have a distinct cow shaped nose that is just so adorable I always want to boop them on the nose! -Ok not really, I’d never actually do that! But still, they are adorable!

Flannery, A. (Photographer). (2018 June 12). Nose of a Cownose ray…

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Featured Species Friday: Chain Catshark (Scyliorhinus retifer)

Featured Species Friday: Chain Catshark (Scyliorhinus retifer)

This week’s Featured Species profile is going to the cats, well catsharks. The chain catshark (Scyliorhinus retifer) is sometimes referred to as the chain dogfish; however, they are a member of the family Scyliorhinidae, which is a family of ground sharks containing over 150 species of catsharks (Skomal, 2016). These catsharks are relatively small, reaching only 2 feet (0.6 m) when fully grown.…

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A Shark with an Omnivorous Diet? New Study Reveals First Known Omnivorous Shark Species

A Shark with an Omnivorous Diet? New Study Reveals First Known Omnivorous Shark Species

A new study published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences has revealed the first known shark species to be omnivorous. Bonnethead shark (Sphyrna tiburo) is the smallest member of the hammerheads, weighing only 13 lbs (5.8 kg) and growing to approximately 5 feet (1.5 m) when adults (Skomal, 2016). And these little sharks are making history!

O’Neil, M.P. (Photographer).…

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Featured Species Friday: Deepsea Skate (Bathyraja abyssicola)

Featured Species Friday: Deepsea Skate (Bathyraja abyssicola)

This week’s Featured Species is going to the flat sharks! The Deepsea Skate (Bathyraja abyssicola) is a wide ranging member of the Arhynchobatidae family. These skates have been found through the Northern Pacific Ocean from Japan to the Bering Sea, and south to Baja California, Mexico and recently observed for the first time in the Galapagos Marine Reserve (Cerutti-Pereyra, et al., 2018).  The…

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Featured Species Friday: Dwarf Lanternshark (Etmopterus perryi)

Featured Species Friday: Dwarf Lanternshark (Etmopterus perryi)

As Shark Fest and Shark Week come to a close I thought it might be a nice change of pace to look at a shark that you didn’t see featured in any documentary these last two weeks. When you ask someone to think of a shark, most people will immediately think of the a large, charismatic species like the great white, tiger, or whale shark. It’s understandable as to why. These are large, flashy species…

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Featured Species Friday: Speartooth Shark (Glyphis glyphis)

Featured Species Friday: Speartooth Shark (Glyphis glyphis)

This week I thought we’d break a few more misconceptions about sharks! This week’s Featured Species,  the Speartooth Shark (Glyphis glyphis), is an incredibly rare species that is currently listed as Endangered (Fowler & Cavanagh, 2005).  The speartooth shark was first made known to science in 1839 by Muller and Helne account of a single adult individual (Compagno, White, & Last, 2008). Over the…