Description

Dorsal spines (total): 2; Anal spines: 0. A small bizarre-looking shark with an unmistakable high body and bristly textured skin (Ref. 5578). Uniformly grey to grey-brown (Ref. 5578).

Common Names

No common names available.

Taxonomic Hierarchy

Kingdom: Animalia

Phylum: Chordata

Class: Elasmobranchii

Order: Squaliformes

Family: Oxynotidae

Genus: Oxynotus

Species: Oxynotus centrina (Linnaeus, 1758)

Climate Zone

Location

Biology

Found on the outer continental shelf and upper slope (Ref. 5578). Depth range from 60-660 m (Ref. 247) and from 549-777 m in the eastern Ionian Sea (Ref. 56504), and 818-1309 m NW Africa (Ref. 128029). Feeds on polychaetes (Ref. 247) and sipunculids (apparenly a suction feeder which mainly feeds on worm-like prey), which are rapidly digested, and the rapid gastric evacuation could partially explain the vacuity of several guts; teleosts, crustaceans and echinoderms are considered as accessory prey items, thus recorded predation on egg cases of the smallspotted catshark Scyliorhinus canicula remains an occasional phenomenon (Ref. 81816). Ovoviviparous (Ref. 205). Utilized for fishmeal, oil, and smoked and dried salted for human consumption (Ref. 247).

Habitat

bathydemersal