Scalloped Hammerhead, Sphyrna lewini (Griffith & Smith 1834)
A Scalloped Hammerhead, Sphyrna lewini. Source: Clay Bryce / Shorefishes of the tropical eastern Pacific online information system. www.stri.org/sftep. License: CC by Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike
A distinctive hammerhead shark with the scalloped front of margin of the head curved forward with an indentation in the middle. Scalloped hammerheads have the pelvic fins with an almost straight hind margin, and a moderately tall, curved first dorsal fin. They are olive green, bronze to brownish-grey above, paler below, with dusky pectoral fins dusky tips and smooth-edged or weakly serrate teeth.
The Hammerhead: Electric Vision Shark
A very large school of Scalloped Hammerhead Sharks off Mozambique.
A Scalloped Hammerhead filmed at a depth of 1042 m in the Ruvuma Basin off Tanzania, Western Indian Ocean.
Scalloped Hammerheads at Daedalus Reef in the Red Sea - depth 40-55 m.
Scalloped Hammerhead, Sphyrna lewini (Griffith & Smith 1834)
More Info
Distribution |
Known in Australian waters from about Geographe Bay, Western Australia, around the tropical north, to Sydney, New South Wales. Elsewhere, widespread in tropical and warm temperate seas. |
Biology |
Females have large litters, producing on average 17 pups per litter, with multiple paternity being common in this species. This may be due to the fact that females can store sperm for up to a year. Chin et al. (2017) found that Scalloped Hammerhead populations are segregated by sex and size, with Australian populations dominated by juveniles and small adult males, while Indonesian and Papua New Guinea populations included large adult females. |
Conservation |
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Remarks |
A Scalloped Hammerhead was filmed by a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) swimming near the seafloor at a depth of 1042 m in the Ruvuma Basin off Tanzania, Western Indian Ocean. |
Species Citation |
Zygaena lewini Griffith & Smith, 1834, The Animal Kingdom 10: 640, pl. 50. Type locality: southern Australia (as "south coast of New Holland"). |
Author |
Bray, D.J. 2023 |
Resources |
Scalloped Hammerhead, Sphyrna lewini (Griffith & Smith 1834)
References
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