Hemiscyllum halmahera
Treasure from the sea Coral Triangle again exposed, this time in the Halmahera region. Scientists confirm the existence of a new species of shark runs in the region later called Hemiscyllum Halmahera.
The story of the discovery of the shark walk was quite long, starting from images captured by a British diver, Graham Abbott, in waters south of Halmahera in 2007.
Abbot jepretannya send photos to the Conservation International (CI) to ask if the photo shows walking shark species similar to those found in Kaimana and bird of paradise, the newly invented back then.
From the photo, scientist at CI aware of the difference. In 2008, in collaboration with the provincial government, Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI), University Khairun, Natural Resources Conservation Center (BKSDA), and The Nature Conservancy (TNC), CI conducted a survey of potential marine conservation and marine tourism in Halmahera, in where sharks can be photographed running again, but the specimen has not been successfully collected.
New in 2012, two specimens of sharks are successfully collected. The research is based on specimens that finally cracked the novelty of walking shark species in the Halmahera. Officially, the shark goes Halmahera was announced as a new species through publication in the Journal of Ichtyology, published in July 2013.
"The significant difference is the walking shark species in color pattern, especially a pair of spots on the bottom of the head, while the spots that exist under other heads form a pattern resembling the letter U," said Mark Erdmann of CI, which is also involved in the identification.
Shark experts from LIPI, Fahmi, who is conducting research on the genus Hemiscyllium, revealed that this finding underscores the diversity of sharks in the waters of eastern Indonesia.
"This is the third running shark species described from eastern Indonesia in the last six years, which shows the diversity elasmobrach in Indonesia," said Fahmi.
Fahmi said, walking shark is a species that lives in shallow marine waters. Said to run because the movement is similar to the movement of terrestrial fauna run. In fact, using a walking shark fins bend. This shark can swim, but only use his swimming ability to escape from predators.
According to Fahmi, walking sharks have differences with sharks generally known to man. Shark runs benign. Breathing was way different. This class of sharks only eat shrimp, crabs, and other small animals. Walking shark has teeth that help grind food shelled.
Until now, there are only nine species of shark found running. Six of the nine species found in Indonesia, while the other three limited spread in Papua New Guinea and northern Australia.
The first walking shark found in Australia is H ocellatum. Furthermore, walking shark found in Raja Ampat in 1824 (H freycineti),
Australia in 1843 (H trispeculare), and Papua New Guinea in 1967 (hallstromi H and H strahani).
In the last decade before the current findings, discovered three new species of
shark goes, in Kaimana (H Henryi) and Paradise (H Galil) and Papua New Guinea in 2008 (H Michaeli) in 2010.