Sphyrna

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 alleni, was described in 2024.

The genus name comes from the Greek word Template:Lang sphyra "hammer", it is also where the family name Sphyrnidae comes from.<ref name="ETYFish">Template:Cite web</ref>

The earliest known fossil species of Sphyrna is †Sphyrna guinoti from the mid-late Eocene of Tunisia and Egypt.<ref name=":0">Template:Cite journal</ref>

Species

The recognized species in this genus are:<ref name=FishBase>Template:FishBase genus</ref><ref name=Quattro2013/>

Extant

• Sphyrna alleni Gonzalez, Postaire, Driggers, Caballero, & Chapman, 2024 (shovelbill shark)<ref name=Gonzalez2024>Gonzalez, C., Postaire, B., Driggers, W., Caballero, S. & Chapman, D. (2024): Sphyrna alleni sp. nov., a new hammerhead shark (Carcharhiniformes, Sphyrnidae) from the Caribbean and the Southwest Atlantic. Zootaxa, 5512 (4): 491–511.</ref>
• Sphyrna corona (S. Springer, 1940) (scalloped bonnethead)
• Sphyrna gilberti Quattro, Driggers, Grady, Ulrich & M. A. Roberts, 2013 (Carolina hammerhead)<ref name=Quattro2013>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.</ref>
• 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 guinoti Adnet et al., 2020<ref name=":0" />
• † Sphyrna integra (Probst, 1878)
• † Sphyrna laevissima (Cope, 1867) (likely synonymous with S. zygaena)<ref name=":0" />
• † Sphyrna magna (Cope, 1867)

References

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