Over 50 years after the last time it was reported, researchers have rediscovered the sailback houndshark, stumbling upon the long-lost species during a survey of fisheries in Papua New Guinea. The rest of this article is behind a paywall. Please sign in or subscribe to access the full content.

If you haven’t heard of this shark before, don’t be surprised; not only has it been missing for a significant amount of time, but the last time it was reported to science was also the first time. It was collected in 1970 in northern Papua New Guinea, described in 1973 – and then appeared to vanish off the face of the Earth.

Even an extensive study of the sharks and rays of the country’s waters in the 2010s didn’t fish it up. Then, in 2020, a team with the World Wildlife Fund carried out a survey of

See Full Page