Carcharhinus obscurus
Collection Details
Specimens
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Taxonomic Hierarchy
Chondrichthyes (Cartilaginous Fishes)
Carcharhiniformes (Ground Sharks)
Carcharhinidae (Requiem Sharks)
Carcharhinus
Carcharhinus obscurus (Dusky Shark)
Description
This species account was compiled from
Composite (multiple sources) (McEachran, J.D. and J.D. Fechhelm. Fishes of the Gulf of Mexico. University of Texas Press, Austin.)
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Characters
Relatively slender, with a moderately short snout and a moderately high caudal fin with a well-developed ventral lobe. Preoral snout length is 1 to 1.4 times internasal width. Anterior nasal flap is poorly developed. Upper labial furrows are short and inconspicuous. Upper jaw has 14 to 15 tooth rows on each side, and lower jaw has 13 to 15. Teeth located in anterolateral section of upper jaw have broad, triangular, strongly serrated, and erect to slightly oblique cusps. Gill slits are moderately long; longest (third) is 2.7% to 4% of TL but less than one-third length of first dorsal fin base. Pectoral fin and first dorsal fin taper distally. Origin of first dorsal fin is above or slightly anterior to rear tip of pectoral fin. Second dorsal fin is small and originates above anal fin origin. Ridge extends between dorsal fin bases. Caudal peduncle lacks keel.
Color is gray to charcoal or bronze dorsally and white ventrally. Tips of fins are dusky.
Distribution
In the western Atlantic it occurs from southern Massachusetts to Florida, Cuba, the Bahamas, the northern Gulf of Mexico, Nicaragua, and southern Brazil.
The northern Gulf of Mexico
Habitat Associations
Tropical to warm temperate seas over continental and insular shelves from the surface to 400 m
Biology
Food consists of barnacles, bryozoans, crustaceans, mollusks, elasmobranchs, a variety of bony fishes, and carrion of marine mammals.
Maximum known size is about 400 cm TL
Development is viviparous with a yolk sac placenta. Litters range from 3 to 14 young. Males mature at about 280 to 340 cm TL, females mature at about 257 to 300 cm TL, and young range from 67 to 100 cm TL at birth.
Found in coastal and offshore waters but not oceanic (Ref. 5578). Adults are commonly found at depths of 200-400 m, young in shallower waters (Ref. 5485). A highly and seasonal migratory species over parts of its range (Ref. 6871). Common component of the catch of the shark longline fishery (Ref.58048). Feeds on bottom and pelagic bony fish, sharks, skates, rays, cephalopods, gastropods, crustaceans, sometimes mammalian carrion and inorganic objects (Ref. 5578). Viviparous (Ref. 50449); with litter size number from 3-14 (Ref. 27549). Large adults are potentially dangerous (Ref. 4716, 6871). Utilized fresh, dried-salted, frozen and smoked for human consumption; hides for leather; fins for sharks-fin soup; and liver oil extracted for vitamins (Ref. 244).
IUCN Red List Status: Endangered (EN), assessed 2018-11-06. Resilience: Very low (rm=0.02; also Musick et al. 2000 (Ref. 36717)).
Phylogeny and Morphologically Similar Fishes
Distinguished from the other species of the family by the combination of characters described
Commercial or Environmental Importance
Fisheries: commercial; gamefish.
References
Bigelow and Schroeder 1948a
Springer 1960
Springer 1963
Clark and von Schmidt 1965
Hoese and Moore 1977
Applegate et al. 1979
Garrick 1982
Castro 1983
Branstetter 1984
Compagno 1984
Bonfil et al. 1990
Compagno, L.J.V. (1984) FAO Species Catalogue. Vol. 4. Sharks of the world. An annotated and illustrated catalogue of shark species known to date. Part 2 - Carcharhiniformes. FAO Fish. Synop. 125(4/2):251-655. Rome: FAO.
Bass, A.J., P.C. Heemstra and L.J.V. Compagno (1986) Carcharhinidae. p. 67-87. In M.M. Smith and P.C. Heemstra (eds.) Smiths' sea fishes. Springer-Verlag, Berlin.
Compagno, L.J.V., D.A. Ebert and M.J. Smale (1989) Guide to the sharks and rays of southern Africa. New Holland (Publ.) Ltd., London. 158 p.
Castro, J.I. (1993) The shark nursery of Bulls Bay, South Carolina, with a review of the shark nurseries of the southeastern coast of the United States. Environ. Biol. Fishes 38(1-3):37-48.
Compagno, L.J.V. and V.H. Niem (1998) Carcharhinidae. Requiem sharks. p. 1312-1360. In K.E. Carpenter and V.H. Niem (eds.) FAO Identification Guide for Fishery Purposes. The Living Marine Resources of the Western Central Pacific Vol. 2. Rome: FAO.
Smale, M.J. (1991) Occurrence and feeding of three shark species, Carcharinus brachyurus, C. obscurus and Sphyrna zygaena, on the eastern Cape coast of South Africa. S. Afr. J. Mar. Sci. 11:31-42.
Bowman, R.E., C.E. Stillwell, W.L. Michaels and M.D. Grosslein (2000) Food of northwest Atlantic fishes and two common species of squid. NOAA Tech. Memo. NMFS-NE 155, 138 p.
Comments On Carcharhinus obscurus