The smalleye hammerhead or golden hammerhead, Sphyrna tudes, is a small subtropical hammerhead shark, family Sphyrnidae, native to coastal waters from Venezuela to Uruguay. The name "golden hammerhead" comes from its highly distinctive, bright metallic gold coloration, which was only documented by science in the 1980s. The color is derived from pigments obtained through the shark's diet. Frequently caught as by-catch at all stages of life, the sm...
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The smalleye hammerhead or golden hammerhead, Sphyrna tudes, is a small subtropical hammerhead shark, family Sphyrnidae, native to coastal waters from Venezuela to Uruguay. The name "golden hammerhead" comes from its highly distinctive, bright metallic gold coloration, which was only documented by science in the 1980s. The color is derived from pigments obtained through the shark's diet. Frequently caught as by-catch at all stages of life, the smalleye hammerhead is increasingly threatened by fisheries in its range.
Despite being one of the most easily identifiable sharks, the smalleye hammerhead has a long history of taxonomic confusion. Its scientific name Sphyrna tudes was long applied to the great hammerhead (Sphyrna mokarran), while this species was known as Sphyrna bigelowi, the smalleye hammerhead. Tortonese (1950) and Gilbert (1967) identified the type specimen illustrated by Valenciennes in 1822 for S. tudes as S. bigelowi. This made S. tudes the proper name for the smalleye...
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