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A new species of shark discovered in Atlantic Ocean

Sixgill

A new species of shark has been discovered in the Atlantic Ocean. Sixgill sharks have long been separated into two distinct species: The Bluntnose Sixgill shark, which lives over 8,000 feet below the surface and the Bigeye Sixgill shark, which inhabits most of the major oceans. However, the Atlantic species of Bigeye Sixgill has just now been declared its own species. The new species’ scientific name is Hexanchus vitulus.

This is what co-author Toby Daly-Engel had to say:

We showed that the sixgills in the Atlantic are actually very different from the ones in the Indian and Pacific Oceans on a molecular level, to the point where it is obvious that they’re a different species even though they look very similar to the naked eye.

Read the full article here.