{"id":109438,"date":"2026-06-23T12:52:53","date_gmt":"2026-06-23T07:22:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=109438"},"modified":"2026-06-23T13:59:56","modified_gmt":"2026-06-23T08:29:56","slug":"apristurus-drona","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/apristurus-drona\/","title":{"rendered":"Apristurus drona"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><b>Apristurus drona Latest News<\/b><\/h2>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Scientists recently identified a new species of deep-sea catshark from the Arabian Sea off the Sakthikulangara harbour on the Kollam coast and named it Apristurus Drona, or the Arabian slender catshark.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>About Apristurus drona<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Apristurus Drona, or the <\/span><b>Arabian slender catshark, <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">is a new species of <\/span><b>deep-sea catshark.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It was discovered in the<\/span><b> Arabian Sea off the Sakthikulangara harbour on the Kollam coast of Kerala.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The species forms a distinct evolutionary lineage and is closely related to catshark species found in the Pacific Ocean and New Zealand.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Scientists reported a genetic divergence of 5.5-5.7% from its nearest known relative, reinforcing its status as a separate species.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It appears to be <\/span><b>extremely rare<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, occurring along the <\/span><b>continental slope off Kollam and around the Wadge Bank.\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It has <\/span><b>no commercial value<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and is only <\/span><b>occasionally encountered in fishery bycatch.\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0<\/span><b>What are Catsharks?<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A catshark is any of more than <\/span><b>150 species of small mottled sharks (order Carcharhiniformes).\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Most are less than<\/span><b> 90 cm (3 feet) long<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, and many have<\/span><b> bold body markings.\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">They have <\/span><b>slender bodies <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">and <\/span><b>eyes that are elongated,<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> giving them a <\/span><b>catlike appearance.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Cat sharks <\/span><b>prey on invertebrates and small fishes.\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">They have been <\/span><b>found in all major marine environments of the tropical and temperate regions,<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> although many bottom-dwelling species are rare and poorly understood.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>No species <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">is<\/span><b> known to be aggressive toward humans. <\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>News:<\/b><strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.newindianexpress.com\/states\/kerala\/2026\/Jun\/22\/new-deep-sea-catshark-species-discovered-off-keralas-kollam-coast\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">NIE<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Apristurus drona is a new species of deep-sea catshark discovered in the Arabian Sea off the Sakthikulangara harbour on the Kollam coast of Kerala. Read more about Apristurus drona, Discovery, Habitat, Latest News.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":109478,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[8277,21,22,23],"class_list":{"0":"post-109438","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","8":"tag-apristurus-drona","9":"tag-prelims-pointers","10":"tag-upsc-current-affairs","11":"tag-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","12":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109438","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=109438"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109438\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":109501,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109438\/revisions\/109501"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/109478"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=109438"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=109438"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=109438"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}