“…Sperm bundles are observed in the semen of many elasmobranch species (Pratt Jr & Tanaka, 1994;Wyfels et al, 2021) and may serve to minimize sperm loss during copulation, increase sperm storage efficiency in the male and female reproductive systems or preserve sperm longevity and motility during storage (Pratt Jr & Tanaka, 1994). The spermatozeugmata of Z. brevirostris are similar to the circular, matrix-containing aggregations of spermatozoa found in Heterodontus portusjacksoni (Meyer, 1793), Raja eglanteria (Bosc, 1802) and Galeorhinus galeus (Linnaeus, 1758) (Jones & Hamlett, 2006;Jones & Jones, 1982;McClusky, 2015) and markedly different from the laterally aligned sperm bundles observed in Squalus acanthias (Linneaus, 1758) and Hydrolagus colliei (Lay & Bennett, 1839) (Pratt Jr & Tanaka, 1994), or the complete envelopment of sperm by the luminal matrix to form spermatophores, as observed in Cetorhinus maximus (Gunnerus, 1765) (Matthews, 1950), Callorhynchus mili (Bory de Saint-Vincent, 1823) (Hamlett et al, 2002) and C. taurus (Wyffels et al, 2020).…”