Discovery of a normal hermaphroditic chondrichthyan species: <i>Apristurus longicephalus</i>

Abstract

Examination of the internal genital apparatus of Apristurus longicephalus , a small, deep‐water bottom‐dwelling catshark (Scyliorhinidae) from the western Pacific and Indian Oceans has revealed that it is a hermaphroditic species. It possesses both the developed genital apparatus of one sex and the undeveloped genital apparatus of the opposite sex in the same individual. Apristurus longicephalus is the first case of normal hermaphroditism to be recorded in cartilaginous fishes and this has been further classified as rudimentary hermaphroditism.