A new species of shark, called the Dudgeon’s walking shark, was found in a night dive carried out by researchers to study wild sharks last Tuesday (16), in a small area off the southeast of 12 Papua New Guinea (PNG).
Since last year, the team of researchers has been dedicated to examining the number of spaulette sharks, an endangered species, in a survey led by UniCS (University of the Sunshine Coast), in Milne Bay and nearby shallow waters.
However, throughout the dive, student Jess Blakeway was under the boat’s lights. “I soon realized that the color pattern was different from any other species I had ever worked with”, reported the student.
She claims that when she took the small shark to her advisor, senior researcher Dr. Dudgeon, the animal was placed in a container of seawater to measure it and collect blood and tissue samples.
Blakeway further confirmed that “only after genetic analysis of the samples, carried out in Australia, was exciting because this is the first new species described for the genus since 2013.”
In the two nights following the discovery, another 11 sharks with the same pattern were found.
The species of Dudgeon’s walking shark is named after as they use their four fins to move around and in honor of the study supervisor who researched the genus of sharks for more than two decades.
It uses its flippers like paws as if it were walking.
The local name for the shark is kadedekedewa, which in free translation would be dog shark or lazy shark, due to its slow gait.
*Under AR supervision.
