Great hammerhead: Where It Lives, Map & Facts

Where the great hammerhead lives – recorded in 6 countries, with quick facts from Wikidata and an introduction from Wikipedia.

Scientific name	Sphyrna mokarran
Group	Sharks
Status	Critically endangered (Wikidata, IUCN category label)
Found in	6 countries
Continents	Africa, Europe, North America, Oceania
Class	Cartilaginous fish
Order	Carcharhiniformes
Family	Sphyrnidae

Where does the great hammerhead live?

Open-licence (CC0 / CC BY) wild records published on GBIF place the great hammerhead in 6 countries and territories across Africa, Europe, North America and Oceania. Wikidata gives its range as: Brazil, New Guinea, The Bahamas.

Countries with at least a handful of records (a minimum share of the species’ records, to leave out vagrants and escapes). Records with coordinates only; captive and fossil records excluded.

Is the great hammerhead endangered?

The great hammerhead’s conservation status recorded in Wikidata is “Critically endangered” (an IUCN Red List category label). Source: Wikidata.

What kind of animal is the great hammerhead?

The great hammerhead (Sphyrna mokarran) is a cartilaginous fish in the order Carcharhiniformes and the family Sphyrnidae, genus Sphyrna. (Taxonomy from Wikidata.)

About the great hammerhead

The great hammerhead (Sphyrna mokarran) is the largest species of hammerhead shark, belonging to the family Sphyrnidae, attaining an average length of 4.6 m (15 ft) and reaching a maximum length of 6.2 m (20 ft). It is found around the globe in all the warmer parts of the oceans. The great hammerhead can be distinguished from other hammerheads by the shape of its "hammer" (called the "cephalofoil"), which is wide with an almost straight front margin, its tall, sickle-shaped first dorsal fin, and its strongly falcated pelvic fins. A solitary, strong-swimming apex predator, the great hammerhead feeds on a wide variety of prey ranging from crustaceans and cephalopods, to bony fish, to smaller sharks. Observations of this species in the wild suggest that the cephalofoil functions to immobilize stingrays, a favored prey. This species has a viviparous mode of reproduction, bearing litters of up to 2-49 pups every two years.

Text in “About” is quoted from the Wikipedia article Great hammerhead (revision 1380582734), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes: lead section excerpted verbatim, formatting removed. Quick facts, taxonomy and status: Wikidata Q757353 (CC0). Countries and pin: GBIF.org occurrence records (CC0 / CC BY 4.0).