NEW YORK: A staff of scientists has recognized a brand new shark species dwelling within the Atlantic Ocean.
Using genetic testing, the learn about showed that the new species, named the "Atlantic sixgill shark", is different than its counterparts within the Indian and Pacific Oceans.
"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," stated Toby Daly-Engel, Assistant Professor and shark biologist at the Florida Institute of Technology.
Measuring as much as 6 ft in duration, Atlantic sixgill sharks are far smaller than their Indo-Pacific relations, which will develop to 15 ft or longer.
They have unique, saw-like decrease tooth and 6 gill slits, as their name suggests, whilst maximum sharks have 5 gill slits. With their new classification, Atlantic sixgill sharks will now have a greater probability at long-term survival, Daly-Engel noted.
"Because we now know there are two unique species, we have a sense of the overall variation in populations of sixgills. We understand that if we overfish one of them, they will not replenish from elsewhere in the world," she stated.
With ancestors courting again to over 250 million years, smartly earlier than dinosaurs, sixgill sharks are a few of the oldest creatures on Earth.
Yet the fact that they reside at excessive ocean depths, once in a while hundreds of ft below the skin, has made them particularly challenging to study.
Using 1,310 base pairs of two mitochondrial genes, the staff decided there are enough genetic variations between what had long been considered a unmarried species, Hexanchus nakamurai, to rename the Atlantic variety Hexanchus vitulus.
Their findings were reported within the journal Marine Biodiversity.
Using genetic testing, the learn about showed that the new species, named the "Atlantic sixgill shark", is different than its counterparts within the Indian and Pacific Oceans.
"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," stated Toby Daly-Engel, Assistant Professor and shark biologist at the Florida Institute of Technology.
Measuring as much as 6 ft in duration, Atlantic sixgill sharks are far smaller than their Indo-Pacific relations, which will develop to 15 ft or longer.
They have unique, saw-like decrease tooth and 6 gill slits, as their name suggests, whilst maximum sharks have 5 gill slits. With their new classification, Atlantic sixgill sharks will now have a greater probability at long-term survival, Daly-Engel noted.
"Because we now know there are two unique species, we have a sense of the overall variation in populations of sixgills. We understand that if we overfish one of them, they will not replenish from elsewhere in the world," she stated.
With ancestors courting again to over 250 million years, smartly earlier than dinosaurs, sixgill sharks are a few of the oldest creatures on Earth.
Yet the fact that they reside at excessive ocean depths, once in a while hundreds of ft below the skin, has made them particularly challenging to study.
Using 1,310 base pairs of two mitochondrial genes, the staff decided there are enough genetic variations between what had long been considered a unmarried species, Hexanchus nakamurai, to rename the Atlantic variety Hexanchus vitulus.
Their findings were reported within the journal Marine Biodiversity.
New shark species discovered in Atlantic Ocean
![New shark species discovered in Atlantic Ocean]()
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February 21, 2018
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