Carolina hammerhead

The Carolina hammerhead (Sphyrna gilberti) is a species of hammerhead shark, and part of the family Sphyrnidae, found in the western Atlantic Ocean. Their pupping grounds are off the coast of South Carolina. It was formally described in 2013.[1]

Carolina hammerhead
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Chondrichthyes
Order: Carcharhiniformes
Family: Sphyrnidae
Genus: Sphyrna
Species:
S. gilberti
Binomial name
Sphyrna gilberti
Quattro, Driggers, Grady, Ulrich & M. A. Roberts, 2013

Little is known about the habits of the species. It is a sister species to S. lewini. The Carolina hammerhead is named in honor of Carter Gilbert, who unknowingly recorded the first known specimen of the shark off Charleston, South Carolina in 1967.[2] Dr. Gilbert, who was the curator of the Florida Museum of Natural History from 1961–1998, caught what he believed was an anomalous scalloped hammerhead shark with 10 fewer vertebrae than a typical scalloped hammerhead. It was not confirmed to be a different species altogether until Quattro's discovery in 2013.

References
  1. Quattro, J.M.; Driggers, W.B. III; Grady, J.M.; Ulrich, G.F. & Roberts, M.A. (2013). "Sphyrna gilberti sp. nov., a new hammerhead shark (Carcharhiniformes, Sphyrnidae) from the western Atlantic Ocean" (PDF). Zootaxa. 3702 (2): 159–178. doi:10.11646/zootaxa.3702.2.5.
  2. "The Carolina hammerhead, a new species of shark". University of South Carolina.


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