A new species of so-called walking shark has been described from Papua New Guinea. Hemiscyllium dudgeonae, known in English as Dudgeon’s epaulette shark, belongs to a small group of benthic reef sharks that can use their pectoral and pelvic fins to move across the seafloor.
As Sci.News reports, the new species comes from eastern Papua New Guinea, specifically Milne Bay Province. The described animal was documented at Nubwageta, and the underlying surveys took place between 2023 and 2025.
The scientific paper by Jessica-Anne Blakeway and colleagues was published in the Journal of the Ocean Science Foundation. It reviews the distribution of several Hemiscyllium species in Papua New Guinea and describes H. dudgeonae as new.
Small, local and vulnerable
Walking sharks are not wide-ranging open-ocean hunters. They mostly live in shallow coastal habitats such as coral reefs, seagrass beds and mangroves, often in less than ten metres of water. Many species reach only about 70 to 80 centimetres and move within very small home ranges.
That lifestyle makes the discovery important for conservation. If a species occurs only on a few reef sections, one local impact can affect the entire known population. Unlike migratory sharks, such animals cannot easily replace losses through immigration from distant areas.
A hotspot for carpet sharks
The overview of walking sharks shows how strongly the group is defined by colour pattern, genetics and geography. For divers, these sharks reverse the usual image of a shark: small, nocturnal, close to the bottom and often more walking than gliding.
The description is therefore more than a taxonomic update. It is a reminder that even familiar reef regions can still hold poorly known species whose protection depends on very local habitat decisions.