Wildlife of the World
Puzzle 65 · Ocean Giants and Reef Life · Page 99 in print
Scalloped Hammerhead
Scalloped hammerhead sharks sometimes gather in schools of several hundred; their broad heads carry widely spaced eyes and sensory organs used to detect prey.
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Scalloped hammerheads swim above pale seafloor in the Galápagos.
Species reference for Scalloped Hammerhead. The photograph does not necessarily show the population or place named in the puzzle.
(c) Charlotte Kirchner, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY 4.0 · Original recordImage changes
Resized and converted to JPEG for display; no subject alteration.

The hammer-shaped head of a scalloped hammerhead is visible from above.
Species reference for Scalloped Hammerhead. The photograph does not necessarily show the population or place named in the puzzle.
(c) Michael Bommerer, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY 4.0 · Original recordImage changes
Resized and converted to JPEG for display; no subject alteration.
The words
Bycatch
Being caught by accident in fishing gear.
Bycatch as a threat to scalloped hammerheads.
Cocos Island
Large aggregations of adult scalloped hammerheads are common at Cocos Island.
Elasmobranch
A member of the shark-and-ray group of cartilaginous fishes; the scalloped hammerhead belongs to this group.
Estuaries
Scalloped hammerheads often enter bays and estuaries.
Hammerhead
The broad, flattened head gives this shark group its name; the scalloped hammerhead has distinctive notches along the front.
Head Ridges
Ridges along the front edge of its head set it apart from other hammerheads.
Malpelo
Large aggregations of adult scalloped hammerheads are common at Malpelo, Colombia.
Nursery
Larger coastal lagoons serve as hammerhead nursery habitat.
Placenta
Embryos are nourished by a yolk-sac placenta.
Pups
Hammerhead pups find their own food from birth.
Schooling
Scalloped hammerheads swim in schools of several hundred.
Sensing Organs
Its broad head spreads the sensing organs that find buried prey.
Sphyrna
The scalloped hammerhead is Sphyrna lewini.
Stingrays
Scalloped hammerheads find stingrays buried in the sand.
Wide Set Eyes
Its eyes sit at the extreme ends of its head.
Sources
- Scalloped Hammerhead (source capture)NOAA Fisheries
- Scalloped Hammerhead (source capture)PLOS ONE (peer-reviewed article, Nalesso et al. 2019), full text via Europe PMC
- Scalloped Hammerhead (source capture)Animal Diversity Web, University of Michigan Museum of Zoology
- Scalloped Hammerheadwww.montereybayaquarium.org