Walking Sharks
Are They Really New to Science?
by Scott W. Michael

This lovely epaulette shark was discovered in Cenderawasih Bay, Papua province. It turns out that it is a species that has yet to be described by ichthyologists. Photo by Dr. Gerald Allen.

If you were planted in front of a TV this summer, or even scanning the internet news sites, you probably heard about the new species of "walking shark" that had been discovered in Indonesia. For those that are familiar with shark taxonomy, you probably recognized the video accompanying the news story as a type of epaulette shark. The common name "epaulette shark" is used for those species in the genus Hemiscyllium. These sharks, along with the bamboo sharks (genus Chiloscyllium) make-up the family Hemiscylliidae.

In this Coral Realm feature article, we will look look at three new species of epaulette sharks that will soon be described and compare the color patterns of all members of the genus.

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