Longnose Pygmy Shark
Heteroscymnoides marleyi Fowler, 1934: 240, fig. 4. Holotype: ANSP 53046. Type locality: Point Ocean Beach, Durban, KwaZulu-Natal, southwestern Indian Ocean.
Local synonymy: Heteroscymnus longus: Fowler, 1925b: 191; Barnard, 1927: 1013. Heteroscymnoides marleyi: Fowler, 1934: 240, fig. 4.; Smith, 1949a: 56, fig. 45; Bigelow & Schroder, 1957: 132, figs. 15f, g, 16e; Smith, 1965: 56, fig. 45; Bass et al., 1976: 49, fig. 35; Compagno, 1984a: 92, fig.; Bass et al., 1986: 58, fig. 5.19; Compagno et al., 1989: 34, pl.; Compagno, 1999: 115; Compagno et al., 2005: 126, fig., pl. 14; Ebert, 2013: 113, fig. 152; Ebert et al., 2013a: 169, fig., pl. 17; Ebert & Mostada, 2013: 48, fig.; Ebert & Dando, 2014: 83, fig.; Ebert, 2015: 108, fig. 126; Ebert & Mostada, 2015: 41, fig.; Ebert & van Hees, 2015: 144; Weigmann, 2016: 892.
South Africa voucher material: ANSP 53046.
South Africa distribution: Known from a single specimen picked up on a beach at Durban (Fowler, 1934).
Remarks: The holotype was picked up on a beach near Vetches Pier, Durban, on 4 January 1923. The 12.6 cm TL female specimen was collected by H.W. Bell-Marley who sent it to H.W. Fowler who originally mistook it for Heteroscymnus longus Tanaka, 1912; a species referable to the genus Somniosus. Fowler (1934) later revised his original identification and described it as a new genus and species. The species appears to be wide-ranging in the Southern Hemisphere with the only six known specimens occurring in three widely dispersed locations in the southwestern Indian Ocean, southeastern Atlantic Ocean, and southeastern Pacific Ocean (Ebert, 2015).
Conservation status: LC (2019).
Genus Isistius Gill, 1865
Cookiecutter Sharks
Isistius Gill, 1865: 264. Type species: Scymnus brasiliensis M̀¹ller & Henle, 1841. Type by monotypy; equals Scymnus brasiliensis Quoy & Gaimard, 1824.