Species Name

Sphyrna mokarran - Great hammerhead (📷 Martin Voeller / Shutterstock) Great hamerheads are known as Sphyrna mokarran to scientists. Mokarran is an Arabic name, meaning "greatest" or "mightiest", referencing that this is the largest species of all the hammerheads. Sphyrna comes from the Greek word "sphyra" which literally means hammer, to describe the bizarre shape of their heads. Interestingly, it is thought that the addition of the 'n' in Sphyrna was actually a spelling mistake when it was taken from the original Greek!