River shark
Temporal range:
Speartooth shark (Glyphis glyphis) at the Melbourne Aquarium
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Chondrichthyes
Subclass: Elasmobranchii
Subdivision: Selachimorpha
Order: Carcharhiniformes
Family: Carcharhinidae
Genus: Glyphis
Agassiz, 1843
Type species
Carcharias (Prionodon) glyphis
Müller & Henle, 1839

Glyphis is a genus in the family Carcharhinidae, commonly known as the river sharks. They live in rivers or coastal regions in and around south-east Asia and parts of Australia.

Taxonomy

This genus contains only three extant species. Further species could easily remain undiscovered, due to their secretive habits.[2] This genus was thought to contain five different species, but recent studies on molecular data revealed that the species Glyphis gangeticus has an irregular distribution in the Indo-West Pacific region.[3]

Species

The recognized species in this genus are:[4]

Distribution and habitat

Their precise geographic range is uncertain, but the known species are documented in parts of South Asia, Southeast Asia, New Guinea[5] and Australia. Of the three currently described species, the Ganges shark is restricted to freshwater, while the northern river shark and the speartooth shark are found in coastal marine waters, as well. While the bull shark (Carcharhinus leucas) is sometimes called both the river shark and the Ganges shark, it should not be confused with the river sharks of the genus Glyphis. River sharks evolved to have their offspring in freshwater, therefore, making them safe to roam in the water while other sharks are able to survive in saltwater.

Conservation

River sharks remain very poorly known to researchers. River sharks were thought to be extinct until the end of the 20th century, when small populations were discovered in Borneo and Northern Australia.[6] Now, they face a critically endangered status as they are so poorly studied, and people know very little about their population and life history. Glyphis gangeticus uses the Ganges River as nursery grounds and the birthplace of many Ganges shark offspring, however the population has been severely diminished owing to a long history of fishing and other pollution-related issues in the Northern Arabian Sea. Additionally, India, where the Ganges river flows, is reported to be one of the top three greatest shark and ray capturers in the world, accounting for up to 9 percent of reported global landings (Jabado et al., 2018). They have been found in nine different tidal areas, which consist of muddy waters with a low salinity. Their placement in connection to coastal marine waters indicates that they are usually born around October.[5]

Images

Media related to Glyphis at Wikimedia Commons

References

  1. 1 2 "Glyphis Agassiz 1843 (river shark)". Fossilworks.
  2. 1 2 3 Li, Chenhong; Corrigan, Shannon; Yang, Lei; Straube, Nicolas; Harris, Mark; Hofreiter, Michael; White, William T; Naylor, Gavin J. P (2015). "DNA capture reveals transoceanic gene flow in endangered river sharks". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 112 (43): 13302–7. Bibcode:2015PNAS..11213302L. doi:10.1073/pnas.1508735112. PMC 4629339. PMID 26460025.
  3. ↑ Jabado, R. W.; Kyne, P. M.; Nazareth, E.; Sutaria, D. N. (2018). "A rare contemporary record of the Critically Endangered Ganges shark Glyphis gangeticus". Journal of Fish Biology. 92 (5): 1663–1669. doi:10.1111/jfb.13619. ISSN 1095-8649. PMID 29611178.
  4. ↑ Bailly, Nicolas (2014). "Glyphis Agassiz, 1843". WoRMS. World Register of Marine Species. Retrieved 6 July 2023.
  5. 1 2 White WT; Appleyard SA; Sabub B; Kyne PM; Harris M; Lis R; et al. (October 7, 2015). "Rediscovery of the Threatened River Sharks, Glyphis garricki and G. glyphis, in Papua New Guinea". PLoS ONE. 10 (10): e0140075. Bibcode:2015PLoSO..1040075W. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0140075. PMC 4596488. PMID 26445387.
  6. ↑ Li, Chenhong; Corrigan, Shannon; Yang, Lei; Straube, Nicolas; Harris, Mark; Hofreiter, Michael; White, William T.; Naylor, Gavin J. P. (2015). "DNA capture reveals transoceanic gene flow in endangered river sharks". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 112 (43): 13302–13307. ISSN 0027-8424.


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