First Confirmed Record of the Smalltooth Sand Tiger, Odontapis Ferox, in Galicia (NW Spain)

• Published in: Thalassas: An International Journal of Marine Sciences
• Main Authors: Mucientes, Gonzalo, Vilas-Arrondo, Nair, Secci-Petretto, Giulia, Vázquez, Uxía, Pin, Xabier, López, Alfredo, Castro, L. Filipe C., Froute, Elsa
• Other Authors: Ministerio de Transición Ecológica (España), Xunta de Galicia, Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (Portugal), Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (España)
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Springer 2023
• Subjects: Odontaspis ferox; Smalltooth sand tiger; First record; Galicia; North Atlantic Ocean; North Atlantic
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10261/307642; https://doi.org/10.1007/s41208-023-00526-9

5 pages, 3 figures.-- This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License The smalltooth sand tiger shark Odontaspis ferox (Risso, 1810) appears to have an extensive and fragmented distribution in tropical and warm-temperate worldwide oceans. One female of O. ferox was caught and released by a small-scale fishery vessel in Ría de Arousa (Northwest of Spain), subsequently stranded still alive on the coast (42°33’18.4"N 8°49’18.3"O) after a few hours. The individual (336 cm total length, weight ~ 300 kg) was identified based on a collection of features including the characteristic dentition, body morphology and by molecular assignment. This is the first confirmed record of O. ferox in Galician waters. This finding complements the knowledge of the geographic distribution and occurrence of this rare and sparse species in the Northeastern Atlantic The Galician stranding network, coordinated by CEMMA, is funded by the Biodiversity Foundation, of the Spanish Ministry for Ecological Transition, through the REVARGAL project, and Xunta de Galicia. AL is funded by national funds (OE), through FCT – Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, This work was supported by the Foundation for Science and Technology to GS (SFRH/BD/139069/2018) and EF (CEECIND/00627/2017), by Strategic Funding UIDB/04423/2020 and UIDP/04423/2020. Open Access funding provided thanks to the CRUE-CSIC agreement with Springer Nature Peer reviewed