The hooded carpetshark (''Hemiscyllium strahani'') is a bamboo shark in the

family Family (from ) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). It forms the basis for social order. Ideally, families offer predictabili ...

Hemiscylliidae The Hemiscylliidae are a family of sharks in the order Orectolobiformes, commonly known as longtail carpet sharks and sometimes as bamboo sharks. They are found in shallow waters of the tropical Indo-Pacific. They are relatively small sharks, ...

found around

Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea, officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, is an island country in Oceania that comprises the eastern half of the island of New Guinea and offshore islands in Melanesia, a region of the southwestern Pacific Ocean n ...

, between

latitude In geography, latitude is a geographic coordinate system, geographic coordinate that specifies the north-south position of a point on the surface of the Earth or another celestial body. Latitude is given as an angle that ranges from −90° at t ...

s 5° S and 10° S, and

longitude Longitude (, ) is a geographic coordinate that specifies the east- west position of a point on the surface of the Earth, or another celestial body. It is an angular measurement, usually expressed in degrees and denoted by the Greek lett ...

144° E and 153° E. Its length is up to 75 cm. Like other longtailed carpetsharks, it can use its strong

pectoral fins Fins are moving appendages protruding from the body of fish that interact with water to generate thrust and help the fish swim. Apart from the tail or caudal fin, fish fins have no direct connection with the back bone and are supported only b ...

to walk on land for a short period of time. The hooded carpetshark is heavily wanted in the aquarium trade, the result is making this shark endangered. Reproduction is

oviparous Oviparous animals are animals that reproduce by depositing fertilized zygotes outside the body (i.e., by laying or spawning) in metabolically independent incubation organs known as eggs, which nurture the embryo into moving offsprings kno ...

Etymology

The shark is named in honor of Australian zoologist Ronald Strahan (1922–2010), who was director of Taronga Zoological Park, where the holotype lived in captivity.

References

* * Compagno, Dando, & Fowler, ''Sharks of the World'', Princeton University Press, New Jersey 2005 {{Taxonbar, from=Q28852 hooded carpetshark Fish of Papua New Guinea Taxa named by Gilbert Percy Whitley hooded carpetshark

Etymology

See also

References