| Carolina hammerhead | |
|---|---|
| |
| Conservation status | |
 Data Deficient (IUCN 3.1) | |
| CITES Appendix II (CITES) | |
Scientific classification 
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| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Chondrichthyes |
| Subclass: | Elasmobranchii |
| Order: | Carcharhiniformes |
| Family: | Sphyrnidae |
| Genus: | Sphyrna |
| Species: | S. gilberti |
| Binomial name | |
| Sphyrna gilberti Quattro, Driggers, Grady, Ulrich & M. A. Roberts, 2013 | |
The Carolina hammerhead (Sphyrna gilberti) is a species of hammerhead shark, and part of the family Sphyrnidae, found in the western Atlantic Ocean. Their pupping grounds are in nearshore waters off the southeastern U.S. with the highest concentrations found in Bulls Bay, South Carolina. The Carolina hammerhead has also been found in nearshore waters off of Brazil. It was formally described in 2013. It is currently classified as Vulnerable (VU) on the IUCN Red List due to overfishing and habitat degradation.
Little is known about the habits of the species. It is a sister species to S. lewini. The Carolina hammerhead is named in honor of Carter Gilbert, who unknowingly recorded the first known specimen of the shark off Charleston, South Carolina, in 1967. Dr. Gilbert, who was the curator of the Florida Museum of Natural History from 1961–1998, caught what he believed was an anomalous scalloped hammerhead shark with 10 fewer vertebrae than a typical scalloped hammerhead. It was not confirmed to be a different species altogether until Quattro's discovery in 2013. The general diet of the Carolina hammerheads consists of bony fishes and cephalopods such as squids, octopuses, and cuttlefishes. They also feed on shrimps, lobsters, crabs, and other smaller sharks and rays.
References
- VanderWright, W.J.; Carlson, J.; Pollom, R.; Dulvy, N.K. (2020). "Sphyrna gilberti". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2020: e.T152783714A172115852. doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2020-3.RLTS.T152783714A172115852.en. Retrieved 19 May 2023.
- "Appendices | CITES". cites.org. Retrieved 14 January 2022.
- Barker, A.M.; Frazier, B.S.; Portnoy, D.S. (2021). "Distribution and relative abundance of scalloped (Sphyrna lewini) and Carolina (S. gilberti) hammerheads in the western North Atlantic Ocean". Fisheries Research. 242: 106039. doi:10.1016/j.fishres.2021.106039.
- Pinhal, D. (2012). "Cryptic hammerhead shark lineage occurrence in the western South Atlantic revealed by DNA analysis". Marine Biology. 159 (4): 829-836. Bibcode:2012MarBi.159..829P. doi:10.1007/s00227-011-1858-5. S2CID 3954990.
- Quattro, J.M.; Driggers, W.B. III; Grady, J.M.; Ulrich, G.F. & Roberts, M.A. (2013). "Sphyrna gilberti sp. nov., a new hammerhead shark (Carcharhiniformes, Sphyrnidae) from the western Atlantic Ocean" (PDF). Zootaxa. 3702 (2): 159–178. doi:10.11646/zootaxa.3702.2.5. PMID 26146715.
- "The Carolina hammerhead, a new species of shark". University of South Carolina.
| Extant ground shark species | |||||||||
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| Carcharhinidae (Requiem sharks) |
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| Hemigaleidae (Weasel sharks) |
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| Leptochariidae |
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| Proscylliidae (Finback catsharks) |
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| Pseudotriakidae |
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| Scyliorhinidae (Catsharks) | (see Scyliorhinidae) | ||||||||
| Sphyrnidae (Hammerhead sharks) |
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| Triakidae (Houndsharks) |
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| Taxon identifiers | |
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| Sphyrna gilberti | |
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