It has recently come to light that a new species of catshark, Apristurus manocheriani, has recently been discovered in the southwest Indian Ocean by researchers from the Pacific Shark Research Center in the United States. Researchers conducted the study along the Southwest Indian ocean (SWIO) between 2012 and 2014.
As reported by Republic World, the study helped them gather eight deep-sea sharks while studying the seamounts off the coast of Madagascar and began the in-depth study. Also, this new species of catshark has been named “Apristurus manocheriani”, in honour of Greg Manocherian. A common name ‘Manocherian’s Catshark’ was proposed.
The study published on Zenodo.org states, “The new species is placed in the Apristurus spongiceps subgroup and is only the second known species in this subgroup occurring in the western Indian Ocean. Geographically, A. manocheriani is known only from the SWIO, while its two closest congeners are from distant locations: Apristurus albisoma Nakaya & Séret, 1999 occurs in the southwest Pacific Ocean and Apristurus aphyodes Nakaya & Stehmantn, 1998 in the northeast Atlantic”.
Amazing that we are still discovering new species of shark in 2021! This new (sorry, ugly) one was discovered in deep sea mounts in the southwestern Indian Ocean. #SharkWeek https://t.co/ugV4ZWfZ7X pic.twitter.com/ZjT5sF3odD — Luiz Rocha, PhD (@CoralReefFish) July 12, 2021
Furthermore, the report states that Apristurus catsharks can be found in almost all oceans such as the Arctic ocean. However, they can’t be discovered in the Antarctic ocean. These species are fond of seamounts, deep-sea ridges, and trenches and can be found at depths of 200–2200 metres.
