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First record of a smalltooth sandtiger shark, Odontaspis ferox, from the Galápagos Islands

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 December 2013

Erich K. Ritter  and
Leonard J.V. Compagno
Erich K. Ritter*
Affiliation:
Shark Research Institute, Florida Office, 5970 Osprey Place, Pensacola, FL 32504, USA
Leonard J.V. Compagno
Affiliation:
Shark Research Center, Department of Botany and Zoology, Stellenbosch University, Private Bag X1, Stellenbosch 7602, South Africa
*
Correspondence should be addressed to: E.K. Ritter, Shark Research Institute, Florida Office, 5970 Osprey Place, Pensacola, FL 32504, USA email: erichritter@att.net

Abstract

A video clip from the Galápagos Archipelago confirms the first recording of the smalltooth sandtiger shark, Odontaspis ferox, in these islands. Further sightings of this species in the eastern Pacific will likely follow, considering that other, relatively nearby islands lay within reach of the Equatorial Counter Current and North Equatorial Current, which connect some already reported sightings.

Keywords

Galápagos IslandsOdontaspis feroxsmalltooth sandtiger shark

Information

Type
Research Article
Information
Marine Biodiversity Records , Volume 6 , 2013 , e130
Copyright
Copyright © Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom 2013 

Odontaspis ferox (Risso, Reference Risso1810) (Chondrichthyes, Odontaspididae), the smalltooth sandtiger shark or bumpytail raggedtooth shark, is a cosmopolitan species of warm and temperate waters (Compagno, Reference Compagno1984), although some areas have only been confirmed by a single specimen (e.g. Sheehan, Reference Sheehan1988; Bonfil, Reference Bonfil1995; Garla & Garcia Junior, Reference Garla and Garcia Junior2006).

A female smalltooth sandtiger shark was video-taped on 10 November 2010 in 25 m depth on the rocky slopes of Wolf Island (1°23′N 91°48′W), the first record for this species in the Galápagos Archipelago (Zarate, Reference Zarate, Danulat and Edgar2002; Ruiz et al., Reference Ruiz, Chiriboga, Banks, Bungartz, Herrera, Jaramillo, Tirado, Jímenez-Uzcategui, Ruiz, Guézou and Ziemmeck2011). The shark was leisurely cruising and apparently not intimidated by the divers' presence during the encounter. Based on length comparison with a diver that swam right next to her, the female was estimated to be around 2.5 m.

Since this specimen was not caught, species identification had to be done by external features only. Membership of this shark in the family Odontaspididae was confirmed by the unique combination of visibility of both upper and lower teeth and presence of two rather large dorsal fins. None of the three species within this family had yet been mentioned within the Galápagos Archipelago (e.g. Grove & Lavenberg, Reference Grove and Lavenberg1997; McCosker & Rosenblatt, Reference McCosker and Rosenblatt2010), and additional features were required to determine which sandtiger species was seen in the video. Carcharias taurus, the (common) sandtiger shark, and C. noronhai, the bigeye sandtiger shark, possess dorsal fins of nearly equal size, where the first dorsal fin of both species is positioned closer to the bases of the pelvic than the pectoral fins. These features are in contrast to those of the observed specimen, which had two dorsal fins of unequal size, with the second one considerably smaller than the first (Figure 1A). Likewise, the base of the first dorsal fin was closer to the pectoral than the pelvic fins. Beside these morphological characteristics, the strongly asymmetrical caudal fin and the rather bulbous snout (Figure 1B) further distinguish the observed specimen from the common sandtiger and bigeye sandtiger sharks.

Fig. 1.

Typical external features of the smalltooth sandtiger shark: (A) unequal sizes of the two dorsal fins and position of the first dorsal fin with reference to the base of the pectoral fin, and strongly asymmetrical caudal fin; (B) bulbous snout.

Smalltooth sandtiger sharks have previously been recorded in the eastern Pacific, off Southern California (Daugherty, Reference Daugherty1964; Seigel & Compagno, Reference Seigel and Compagno1986), Mexico (Abita-Cardenas et al., Reference Abita-Cardenas, Rodriguez-Romero, Galvan-Magana, de la Cruz Aguero and Chavez-Ramos1994; Castro-Aguirre & Balart, Reference Castro-Aguirre and Balart1996; Villavicencio-Garayzar, Reference Villavicencio-Garayzar1996), and Columbia (Mejia-Falla et al., Reference Mejía-Falla, Navia, Mejía-Ladino, Acero and Rubio2007), as well as around Malpelo Island (Ferguson et al., Reference Ferguson, Graham and Compagno2008) and Cocos Island (Cortes & Blum, Reference Cortes and Blum2008). Since Galápagos can now be added to the distribution, sightings are expected to occur in due time around Clipperton Island and the Revillagigedo Archipelago as well, as these areas are all connected by the Equatorial Counter Current and Northern Equatorial Current.

This quite extensive but still rather patchy range for the smalltooth sandtiger sharks within the eastern Pacific raises the question of whether this species spread through a single continuous distribution, as was already shown within the same area, e.g. for the prickly shark, Echinorhinus cookei (Long et al., Reference Long, McCosker, Blum and Klapfer2011). If there is indeed such a single origin for this type of distribution—or multiple ones—needs to be determined, but the large ocean currents within this part of the eastern Pacific played a key role in the distribution process.

We thank Martin Krammer for the videotape recording of the smalltooth sandtiger shark.

References

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Figure 0

Fig. 1. Typical external features of the smalltooth sandtiger shark: (A) unequal sizes of the two dorsal fins and position of the first dorsal fin with reference to the base of the pectoral fin, and strongly asymmetrical caudal fin; (B) bulbous snout.