New Shark Species Found in Sea of Cortez
A Mexican marine biologist has discovered a new shark species in the murky depths of the Sea of Cortez.
Postgraduate student Juan Carlos Perez was on a fishing boat in early 2003 studying sharks from the genus Mustelus netted at depths of 660 feet when he noticed some of them had darker skin and white markings. The sharks, dark gray-brown and about 5 feet long, turned out to be a new species that Perez and his team have named Mustelus hacat, after the word for shark in an indigenous dialect.
“They have very, very small teeth,” Perez said. “They are really not aggressive or dangerous.”
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