Monday, June 18, 2012

Hammerhead Shark

I was walking on a southern California Beach with Cliffs above us with my wife when someone pointed a shark out to us in the water swimming along with our walking gate northwards. At first I wondered if it were a seal sticking one of his or her flippers into the air like they often do. But usually they only do this for about 20 seconds to a minute or two. So, finally I knew it likely had to be a shark. However, the shark fin was different than any I remembered. So, when I could I went online to Google Images of sharks to see which top fin this matched. I was surprised when the fin matched a hammerhead shark. I hadn't known that hammerheads were off of California before. When I used to SCUBA dive a lot in my teens and 20s my general rule was that if a shark was bigger than me that I got out of the water. The exception to this would be a Great White shark which aren't safe over about 4 to 5 feet to be around necessarily. But most sharks if they are smaller than you and you aren't bleeding won't attack you or go into a frenzy.

So, as I walked along the beach I kept looking to see if this shark kept moving about a walking pace about 50 to 100 yards out to sea. And he or she matched the walking speed of my wife and I. Another strange thing was a fox standing on a cliff nearby that was pointed out to us by a fisherman who was Shore fishing from the beach. I think the fox wanted a fish a seagull had nearby. So, when I looked on the computer I found out that Hammerhead sharks live in the Pacific Ocean all the way up into Canada and live in oceans surrounding the entire lower 48 states and Hawaii which was something I never knew before. Amazing experience!
 
Photo: Hammerhead shark
 You notice that the top fin is pretty individualistic as far as shark fins go. And you can also see how I might mistake this top fin for a Sea Lions front flipper from a distance.

The following quote is from Wikipedia under the heading "Hammerhead Shark"

Hammerhead shark

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Hammerhead sharks
Temporal range: Middle Miocene to Present[1]
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Scalloped hammerhead, Sphyrna lewini
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Chondrichthyes
Subclass: Elasmobranchii
Order: Carcharhiniformes
Family: Sphyrnidae
T. N. Gill, 1872
Genera
  • Eusphyra
  • Sphyrna
The hammerhead sharks are a group of sharks in the family Sphyrnidae, so named for the unusual and distinctive structure of their heads, which are flattened and laterally extended into a "hammer" shape called a "cephalofoil". Most hammerhead species are placed in the genus Sphyrna while the winghead shark is placed in its own genus, Eusphyra. Many, not necessarily mutually exclusive, functions have been proposed for the cephalofoil, including sensory reception, maneuvering, and prey manipulation. Hammerheads are found worldwide in warmer waters along coastlines and continental shelves. Unlike most sharks, hammerheads usually swim in schools during the day, becoming solitary hunters at night. Some of these schools can be found near Malpelo Island in Colombia, Cocos Island, off Costa Rica, and near Molokai Island, in Hawaii. Large schools are also seen in southern and eastern Africa.

Contents

Description

The nine known species range from 0.9 to 6 m (3.0 to 20 ft) long and weigh from 500 to 1000 pounds. They are usually light gray and have a greenish tint to them. Their bellies are white which allows them to be close to the bottom of the ocean and blend in to sneak up on their prey.[2] Their heads have lateral projections which give them a hammer-like shape.
A Costa Rican hammerhead shark
It was determined recently that the hammer-like shape of the head may have evolved (at least in part) to enhance the animal's vision.[3] The positioning of the eyes, mounted on the sides of the shark's distinctive hammer head give the shark good 360-degree vision in the vertical plane, meaning they can see above and below them at all times.[4] The shape of the head was previously thought to help the shark find food, aiding in close-quarters maneuverability and allowing sharp turning movement without losing stability. However, it has been found that the unusual structure of its vertebrae was instrumental in making the turns correctly, more often than the shape of its head, though it would also shift and provide lift. From what is known about the Winghead shark, it would appear that the shape of the hammer-head has to do with an evolved sensory function. Like all sharks, hammerheads have electroreceptory sensory pores called ampullae of Lorenzini. By distributing the receptors over a wider area, hammerheads can sweep for prey more effectively.[5] These sharks have been able to detect an electrical signal of half a billionth of a volt[citation needed]. The hammer also allows the nostrils to be placed farther apart, increasing its ability to detect chemical gradients and localize the source[citation needed].
Hammerheads have disproportionately small mouths and seem to do a lot of bottom-hunting. They are also known to form schools during the day, sometimes in groups of over 100. In the evening, like other sharks, they become solitary hunters.

Taxonomy

Since sharks do not have mineralized bones and rarely fossilize, it is their teeth alone that are commonly found as fossils. The hammerheads seem closely related to the carcharhinid sharks. The teeth of hammerheads resemble those of some carcharhinid. Using mitochondrial DNA, Andrew Martin constructed a phylogenetic tree of the hammerhead sharks that showed the winghead shark as its most basal member. As the winghead shark has proportionately the largest "hammer" of the hammerhead sharks, this suggests that the first ancestral hammerhead sharks also had large hammers.[6]

Reproduction

Reproduction only occurs once a year for hammerhead sharks and usually occurs with the male shark biting the female shark violently until she agrees to mate with him. [7]The hammerhead sharks exhibit a viviparous mode of reproduction with females giving birth to live young. Like other sharks, fertilization is internal with the male transferring sperm to the female through one of two intromittent organs called claspers. The developing embryos are at first sustained by a yolk sac. When the supply of yolk is exhausted, the depleted yolk sac transforms into a structure analogous to a mammalian placenta (called a "yolk sac placenta" or "pseudoplacenta"), through which the mother delivers sustenance until birth. Once the baby sharks are born, they are not taken care of by the parents in any way. There is usually a litter of 12 to 15 pups; except for the Great Hammerhead which births litters of 20 to 40 pups. These baby sharks huddle together and swim toward warmer water and stay together until they are older and big enough to be on their own. [7]
In 2007, the bonnethead shark was found to be capable of asexual reproduction via automictic parthenogenesis, in which a female's ovum fuses with a polar body to form a zygote without the need for a male. This was the first shark known to do this.[8]

Diet

Hammerhead sharks are known to eat a large range of items including fish, squid, octopus, crustaceans, and other hammerhead sharks. Stingrays are a particular favorite. These sharks are found many times swimming along the bottom of the ocean, stalking their prey. Their unique head is used as a weapon when hunting down prey. The hammerhead shark uses its head to pin down stingrays and eats the ray when the ray is weak and in shock.[9] There is a species of the hammerhead shark that is more aggressive and large in size: the Great Hammerhead. These sharks tend to be more aggressive and eat squid, octopus, and other hammerhead sharks. They are also known to eat their own young.[10]

Species

School of scalloped hammerheads, Wolf Island, Galapagos Islands
Announcements in June, 2006 reported the discovery of a possible new species of hammerhead off the shores of South Carolina. The possible new species is referred to simply as a cryptic species until it receives an official designation. This is prolonged, in part, because the discovery is really that the "scalloped hammerhead" is possibly two different species, not that a new species has been sighted, in the normal way. The discovery that scalloped hammerheads are possibly two species is a result of genetic testing and counts of vertebrae.[11][12]

Relationship to humans

A hammerhead shark at Atlantis Paradise Island
Of the nine known species of hammerhead, three can be dangerous to humans: the scalloped, great, and smooth hammerheads.
The great and the scalloped hammerhead are listed on the World Conservation Union's (IUCN) 2008 Red List as endangered, whereas the smalleye hammerhead is listed as vulnerable. The status given to these sharks is as a result of over-fishing and demand for their fins, an expensive delicacy. Among others, scientists expressed their concern about the plight of the scalloped hammerhead at the American Association for the Advancement of Science annual meeting in Boston. The young swim mostly in shallow waters along shores all over the world to avoid predators.
Shark fins are prized as a delicacy, and overfishing is putting many hammerhead sharks at risk of extinction. Fishermen who harvest the animals typically cut off the fins and toss the remainder of the fish, which is often still alive, back into the sea.[13] As of 2010 there have been 33 attacks, but no fatalities.

Hawaiian culture

In Native Hawaiian culture, sharks are considered to be gods of the sea, also known as aumakua, protectors of humans, and cleaners of excessive ocean life. Some of these sharks are believed to be family members who passed away and have been reincarnated into shark form. However, there are sharks that are considered man-eaters, also known as niuhi. These sharks include great white sharks, tiger sharks, and bull sharks. The hammerhead shark, also known as mano kihikihi, is not considered a man-eater or niuhi; it is considered to be one of the most respected sharks of the ocean, an aumakua. Many Hawaiian families believe that they have an aumakua watching over them and protecting them from the niuhi. The hammerhead shark is thought to be the birth animal of some children. Hawaiian children who are born with the hammerhead shark as an animal sign are believed to be warriors and are meant to sail the oceans. It is extremely rare for hammerhead sharks to pass through the waters of Maui, but many Maui natives believe that when the hammerhead sharks pass by, it is a sign that the gods are watching over the families, and the oceans are clean and balanced. [14]

See also

Portal icon Sharks portal
For a topical guide to this subject, see Outline of sharks.

References

  1. ^ Sepkoski, Jack (2002). "A compendium of fossil marine animal genera (Chondrichthyes entry)". Bulletins of American Paleontology 364: 560. Retrieved 01/09/08.
  2. ^ - Hammerhead Shark: Shark-World
  3. ^ |McComb et al.|[http://jeb.biologists.org/content/212/24/4010.full
  4. ^ D. Michelle McComb et al. (2009-11-27). "Hammerhead shark mystery solved". BBC News. Retrieved 2010-05-04.
  5. ^ R. Aidan Martin. "If I Had a Hammer". Rodale's Scuba Diving August 1993. Retrieved March 2006.
  6. ^ R. Aidan Martin. "Origin and Evolution of the 'Hammer'". www.elasmo-research.org. Retrieved January 2005.
  7. ^ a b - HAMMERHEAD SHARK: Aquatic Community
  8. ^ Chapman, DD; Shivji, MS; Louis, E; Sommer, J; Fletcher, H; Prodöhl, PA (2007-08-22). "Virgin birth in a hammerhead shark". Biology Letters 3 (4). DOI:10.1098/rsbl.2007.0189. PMC 2390672. PMID 17519185.
  9. ^ HAMMERHEAD SHARK - Aquatic Community
  10. ^ HAMMERHEAD SHARK - Enchanted Learning Software
  11. ^ Quattro, et. al. (December 2005). "Genetic evidence of cryptic speciation within hammerhead sharks (Genus Sphyrna)". Marine biology (Springer Berlin / Heidelberg) 148 (5): 1143-1155. DOI:10.1007/s00227-005-0151-x.
  12. ^ "Scientist Finds 'Genetically Distinct' Shark". PhysOrg.com. Retrieved June 2006.
  13. ^ http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/02/25/AR2011022505123.html Retrieval February 25 2011
  14. ^ - Sharks Highly respected in Hawaiian Culture

External links

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