Thursday 8 March 2018

'Resurrected' Shark Species Found Dwelling Deep in the Atlantic



By Stephanie Pappas, Live Science Contributor | March 1, 2018 01:10pm ET

Scientists have discovered a new species of shark cruising the Atlantic Ocean.

The Atlantic sixgill shark is a deep-sea dweller that gives birth to sweet-faced pups. It was long thought to be part of a global species of sixgill shark known as Hexanchus nakamurai, but new genetic evidence reveals that it's a separate species. Researchers have dubbed the newly discovered shark Hexanchus vitulus.

"We showed that the sixgills in the Atlantic are actually very different from the ones in the Indian and Pacific Oceans on a molecular level, to the point where it is obvious that they're a different species even though they look very similar to the naked eye," Toby Daly-Engel, a shark scientist at the Florida Institute of Technology, said in a statement.[On the Brink: A Gallery of Wild Sharks]

No comments:

Post a Comment

You only need to enter your comment once! Comments will appear once they have been moderated. This is so as to stop the would-be comedian who has been spamming the comments here with inane and often offensive remarks. You know who you are!

Related Posts with Thumbnails

ShareThis