NEWSLETTER 01/2014 23.01.2013

PARTNERS OF SHARK-REFERENCES:

         Partner in Google-Maps:                           

New images at shark-references:

• Dr. David A. Ebert, Pacific Shark Research Center, Moss Landing Marine Laboratories for a image of Pristiophorus lanae EBERT & WILMS, 2013:
  
  
   
• William T. White, CSIRO Marine & Atmospheric Research, Wealth from Oceans Flagship, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia for the images of Aetobatus narutobiei WHITE, FURUMITSU & YAMAGUCHI, 2013 
  
  
  
  and the permission to use the images of the CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research Papers at shark-references.com, e.g. Squalus chloroculus LAST, WHITE & MOTOMURA, 2007:
  
  
  
  
  for more images please vistit the following pages:
  
  https://shark-references.com/species/view/Squalus-crassispinus
  https://shark-references.com/species/view/Squalus-megalops
  https://shark-references.com/species/view/Squalus-cubensis
  https://shark-references.com/species/view/Squalus-bucephalus
  https://shark-references.com/species/view/Squalus-raoulensis
  https://shark-references.com/species/view/Squalus-brevirostris
  https://shark-references.com/species/view/Squalus-albifrons
  https://shark-references.com/species/view/Squalus-altipinnis
  https://shark-references.com/species/view/Squalus-notocaudatus
  https://shark-references.com/species/view/Squalus-montalbani
  https://shark-references.com/species/view/Squalus-edmundsi
  https://shark-references.com/species/view/Squalus-grahami
  https://shark-references.com/species/view/Squalus-nasutus
  https://shark-references.com/species/view/Squalus-japonicus
  https://shark-references.com/species/view/Squalus-griffini
  https://shark-references.com/species/view/Squalus-hemipinnis

Missing papers:

Many thanks to all friends of shark-references, who send me some missing papers last month!

Shark-References would kindly like to ask you for your contribution to this project.

Please support www.shark-references.com and send missing papers (not listed papers or papers without the infosymbol) to juergen.pollerspoeck@shark-references.com.

 

Meetings:

IV Encuentro Colombiano sobre Condrictios:

place: Universidad EAFIT de Medellín, Colombia

date: 20. - 24. October 2014

more information

News from shark-references:

just ready!

Papers of the year 2013

New book:

New book:

New described species/Taxonomic News:

Recent:

Parasitology:

Fossil:

New Paper

Recent Papers:

Parasitology:

Fossil:

MISCELLANEOUS:

13 amazing things scientists discovered about sharks in 2013 by David Shiffman 

Other than a certain week in August whose name we shall not speak here, 2013 was a great year for both shark science and the communication of that shark science. There were many important and fascinating discoveries, and many of the world’s top media outlets covered them. Presented here is a list of 13 amazing scientific discoveries made in 2013, in no particular ranking order. To make the list, research must have been published in a peer-reviewed scientific journal in 2013, and someone else other than me must have also thought it was awesome (i.e. it received mainstream media or blog coverage). In the interest of objectivity, I did not include any papers that I or my lab were directly involved with. Whenever possible, I’ve linked to an accessible version of the paper.

 

1) A two-headed bull shark!

From Wagner et al. 2013

 

Citation: Wagner, CM, Rice, PH, and Pease, AP 2013. First record of dicephalia in a bull shark Carcharhinus leucas foetus from the Gulf of Mexico. Journal of Fish Biology 82: 1419-1422.

Brief description: Researchers presented the first case of a bull shark embryo with 2 heads (the mother was caught by a Florida fishermen). In response to the most common question I received about this study, no, this animal would not have survived to adulthood.  While this is a cool discovery, the broader significance is somewhat minimal. As I told science writer Douglas Main in an interview about a similar study, ”There have been a number of reports of deformed shark and ray embryos in recent years— two heads, one eye, etc. There’s no evidence to suggest these defects represent a new phenomenon or that they are harmful to shark populations as a whole.”

Media coverage highlights: A figure from this study was named one of the coolest science photos of the year by the International Science Times. It was also covered by National Geographic, the Guardian, andTIME magazine.


source and complete story

source: http://news.wustl.edu/news/Pages/26319.aspx

Prehistoric shark nursery found in Midwest: See fossil of baby shark

 

By Deborah Netburn

January 7, 2014, 5:04 p.m.

 

Scientists have discovered evidence of an ancient shark nursery -- 310 million years old -- along the shores of a prehistoric interior sea.

 

In 1969, researchers discovered beautifully preserved fossils of baby Bandringa sharks, as well as their spiral egg casings, along Mazon Creek in northeastern Illinois. The juvenile sharks, just 4 to 6 inches long, had pronounced spoon-billed snouts that stretched half as long as their bodies. At the time, scientists thought the babies might be adult specimens of a mini-shark species that they dubbed Bandringa rayi.

Ten years later, in 1979, the same scientists discovered more juvenile Bandringa shark fossils in a different part of Mazon Creek that had once been a brackish swamp. Thinking they were a new species, the scientists called them Bandringa herdinae. That same year, researchers in Pennsylvania found a 10-foot-long adult shark that also had the same long spoon-billed snout and lived in freshwater rivers. A few years later, another large adult was discovered in what was once a freshwater river in Ohio.

In a paper published online Tuesday, University of Michigan paleontologist Lauren Sallan argues that all of the sharks are members of the same species.

In an interview with the Los Angeles Times, Sallan explained that the sharks were preserved differently depending on where they were found. The fossils from marine waters showed soft-tissue preservation, but there was no trace of endoskeletons. The sharks found in freshwater and brackish water had their endoskeletons preserved, but not their soft tissue.

"When you account for the different preservation modes, there is nothing that distinguishes them at all," Sallan said.

Since there were no adult shark fossils found in the marine sites, Sallan and her colleauges think that Bandringa sharks followed a strange breeding pattern - spending most of their adult lives in freshwater rivers and deltas and going to coastal waters to lay their eggs in shallow shark nurseries.

Although no sharks living today are known to travel from fresh water to salty water to lay their eggs, most sharks do use shark nurseries.

"Almost all sharks and their relatives today use nursery waters," Sallan said. "They usually use an environment very near the shore because the shallow area protects the juveniles from other sharks that may be too big to enter them."

Bandringa sharks were bottom feeders who used electro-receptors on their long snouts to help them detect food. The upper part of their bodies were covered in sharp pointed scales, including needle-like spines on their cheeks and on the tops of their head. Those sharp points were likely used for self-defense, Sallan said.

source: http://www.iucn.org/?14311
 

A quarter of sharks and rays threatened with extinction

21 January 2014 | News story

A quarter of the world’s sharks and rays are threatened with extinction according to The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species™, with ray species found to be at a higher risk than sharks. The findings are part of the first ever global analysis of these species carried out by the IUCN Shark Specialist Group (SSG).

The study, which comes at the start of the year marking the 50th anniversary of The IUCN Red List, was published today in the journal eLIFE. It includes the analysis of the conservation status of 1,041 shark, ray and closely related chimaera species.

According to the findings, sharks, rays and chimaeras are at a substantially higher risk than most other groups of animals and have the lowest percentage of species considered safe – with only 23% categorized as Least Concern.

“Our analysis shows that sharks and their relatives are facing an alarmingly elevated risk of extinction,” says Dr Nick Dulvy, IUCN SSG Co-Chair and Canada Research Chair at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia. “In greatest peril are the largest species of rays and sharks, especially those living in shallow water that is accessible to fisheries.”

Overfishing is the main threat to the species, according to the paper. Reported catches of sharks, rays and chimaeras peaked in 2003 and have been dominated by rays for the last 40 years. Actual catches are likely to be grossly under-reported.

Unintentionally caught sharks and rays account for much of the catch, yet developing markets and depleting fishery targets have made this “bycatch” increasingly welcome. Intentional killing of sharks and rays due to the perceived risk that they pose to people, fishing gear or target species is contributing to the threatened status of at least 12 species.

“Surprisingly, we have found that the rays, including sawfish, guitarfish, stingrays, and wedgefish, are generally worse off than the sharks, with five out of the seven most threatened families made up of rays,” says Dr Colin Simpfendorfer, IUCN SSG Co-Chair and Professor of Environmental Science at James Cook University in Queensland, Australia. “While public, media and government attention to the plight of sharks is growing, the widespread depletion of rays is largely unnoticed. Conservation action for rays is lagging far behind, which only heightens our concern for this species group.”

The global market for shark fins used in shark fin soup is a major factor in the depletion of not only sharks but also some rays with valuable fins, such as guitarfish. Sharks, rays and chimaeras are also sought for their meat. Other products from these species include a Chinese tonic made from manta and devil ray gills and pharmaceuticals made from deep sea shark livers.

The Indo-Pacific, particularly the Gulf of Thailand and the Mediterranean Sea are the two ‘hotspots’ where the depletion of sharks and rays is most dramatic. The Red Sea is also home to a relatively high number of threatened sharks and rays, according to the experts.

“Sharks, rays and chimaeras tend to grow slowly and produce few young, which leaves them particularly vulnerable to overfishing,” saysSonja Fordham, IUCN SSG Deputy Chair and president of the Washington, DC-based Shark Advocates International, a project of The Ocean Foundation. “Significant policy strides have been made over the last two decades but effective conservation requires a dramatic acceleration in pace as well as an expansion of scope to include all shapes and sizes of these exceptional species. Our analysis clearly demonstrates that the need for such action is urgent.”

Sharks, rays and chimaeras are known as ‘cartilaginous fish’ due to the fact that their skeletons are made of cartilage rather than bone. They are one of the world’s oldest and most ecologically-diverse groups of animals.

The study is the result of a collaboration of 302 experts from 64 countries.

For more information or interviews please contact:
Ewa Magiera, IUCN Media Relations, t +41 22 999 0346 m +41 79 856 76 26, e ewa.magiera@iucn.org  
Lynne Labanne, IUCN Species Programme Communications Officer, IUCN, t +41 22 999 0153, m +41 79 527 7221, elynne.labanne@iucn.org