Sphyrna Explained

Sphyrna is a genus of hammerhead sharks with a cosmopolitan distribution in the world's oceans. Members of Sphyrna have a tendency to inhabit coastal waters along the intertidal zone rather than the open ocean, as their prey such as invertebrates, fish, rays, small crustaceans, and other benthic organisms hide in the sands and sediment along these zones. Members of Sphyrna are also known by synonyms such as Zygaena, Cestracion, and Sphyrichthys. The earliest species described of this genus was Sphyrna zygaena by Carl Linnaeus in 1758, while the latest described member, Sphyrna gilberti, was discovered and described in 2013.

The genus name comes from the Greek word Greek, Modern (1453-);: σφῦρα sphyra "hammer", it is also where the family name Sphyrnidae comes from.^[1]

Species

The recognized species in this genus are:^[2]

Extant

Sphyrna corona (S. Springer, 1940) (scalloped bonnethead)
Sphyrna gilberti Quattro, Driggers, Grady, Ulrich & M. A. Roberts, 2013 (Carolina hammerhead)^[3]
Sphyrna lewini (E. Griffith & C. H. Smith, 1834) (scalloped hammerhead)
Sphyrna media (S. Springer, 1940) (scoophead)
Sphyrna mokarran (Rüppell, 1837) (great hammerhead)
Sphyrna tiburo (Linnaeus, 1758) (bonnethead)
Sphyrna tudes (Valenciennes, 1822) (smalleye hammerhead)
Sphyrna zygaena (Linnaeus, 1758) (smooth hammerhead)

Extinct

† Sphyrna arambourgi (Cappetta, 1970)
† Sphyrna gibbesii (Hay, 1902)
† Sphyrna integra (Probst, 1878)
† Sphyrna laevissima (Cope, 1867)
† Sphyrna magna (Cope, 1867)

Notes and References

Web site: Family SPHYRNIDAE . 12 December 2022 . Scharpf . Christopher . The ETYFish Project . 20 September 2023 .
Martin, R. Aidan. (February 24, 1998). Recent Changes in Hammerhead Taxonomy. ReefQuest Centre for Shark Research. Retrieved on October 18, 2008.
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. Zootaxa, 3702 (2): 159–178.