Hammerhead Identity Confusion
Researchers have discovered a new species of hammerhead shark that was previously confused with the endangered scalloped hammerhead. They fear that this new species will face the same overfishing that now threatens the scalloped hammerhead, resulting in its own endangerment.
Prized for their fins, scalloped hammerheads are being unsustainably fished. Now that this new look-alike shark has been discovered, scientists fear that the population of scalloped hammerheads could be even lower than they previously thought.
Researchers discovered this new species as a result of a DNA assessment. Additionally, this new species was found to have 20 fewer vertebrae than the scalloped hammerhead. Other than that, the two sharks look almost identical.
Read more about this in the ScienceDaily article.
