Squatina are flat-bodied sharks resembling stingrays (D. Ross Robertson, Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute) An international team of researchers has presented the first report of an angel shark from the Central American Caribbean. The team came across the new species while exploring the biodiversity of benthic organisms, or those living on the ocean floor of Central America’s Pacific and Caribbean coasts.
It was named Squatina mapama after the acronym MAPAMA, (Ministerio de Agricultura y Pesca, Alimentación y Medio Ambiente) which is the Spanish governmental organization that operates the research vessel used for the expeditions.
The team suggested the common name Small-crested Angelshark because of its short and narrow line of small scales. It can grow to a maximum of over 40 cm in length. The findings were published in the Journal of the Ocean Science Foundation.
New #shark species
Squatina mapama, new species from #Panama: first report of an angel shark from the Central American #Caribbean.
Read more about this recent #discoveryhttps://t.co/RpiXXvYULi
— Smithsonian Panama (@stri_panama) January 19, 2022
According to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), many angel shark species are endangered. Squatina are flat-bodied sharks and resemble stingrays.
S. mapama looks very similar to another species that lives around the same area named Squatina david. There were only subtle physical differences between the two and genetic analyses helped establish them as a separate species.
The Small-crested Angelshark is the fourth new species of Squatina identified in the Western Atlantic in the last decade.
- The Indian Express website has been rated GREEN for its credibility and trustworthiness by Newsguard, a global service that rates news sources for their journalistic standards.
