New Discoveries!

Happy New Year from our group here at the Pacific Shark Research Center. We hope that your new year is getting off to a great start. We are very pleased with our progress this past year, and wanted to share some of our successes with you.

First off, the new Ghost Shark that Kristin is taking the lead in describing has reached the galley proof stage and we expect that new species to be formally named within the next week or two. Kristin will have a follow up on that when it is finally published. In fact, she may give our donors a sneak peak at what the new species looks like, so stay tuned!

Second, we did have two new species from the Southwestern Indian Ocean formally named over the past couple of months. 

 

One of the new species, is a Lanternshark, a cousin of the Ninja Lanternshark (Etmopterus benchleyi) that Vicky and I named late last year (2015). The new species is from off Mozambique and the Madagascar Plateau, and is called the Whitecheek Lanternshark (Etmopterus alphus) due to its distinct white markings on it cheeks.

 

The other new species is a deep-sea catshark we have named Bach's Catshark (Bythaelurus bachi) after the great musical composer Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750). This little catshark is known from the Madagascar Ridge; see the above map for its specific location.

 

With these two new species, plus two others we recently named from this region, and Kristin's forthcoming new species that brings to 5 new species, and with still more to come!

Again we want to thank you for all your support in 2016 and we look forward to providing more updates for you on our progress in 2017!