Description

Common Names

No common names available.

Taxonomic Hierarchy

Kingdom: Animalia

Phylum: Chordata

Class: Elasmobranchii

Order: Hexanchiformes

Family: Hexanchidae

Genus: Hexanchus

Species: Hexanchus vitulus Springer & Waller, 1969

Climate Zone

Location

Biology

Found on continental and insular slopes. Feeds mainly on bony fishes and cephalopods, sometimes on crustaceans Viviparous, with 13 to 26 young in a litter. Size at birth measures to about 40-45 cm TL (Ref. 125614). It was reported that there is likely some stratification of the distribution by size, presumably with larger individuals present in deeper waters (mostly adult captured in the Bahamas at an average depth of 639.5 m) than the juveniles (< 350 m in Belize and northern Gulf of Mexico). Resource and habitat partitioning between juvenile and much larger adult bluntnose sixgill sharks has been suggested as predation avoidance (Ref. 117400).

Habitat

bathydemersal