Etmopterus gracilispinis
Broadband Lantern Shark
NS
GNR
Collection Details
Specimens
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Records
Taxonomic Hierarchy
Chondrichthyes (Cartilaginous Fishes)
Squaliformes (Dogfish Sharks)
Etmopteridae (Lantern Sharks)
Etmopterus
Etmopterus gracilispinis (Broadband Lantern 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.)
and processed using AI-assisted text extraction.
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Characters
Relatively stout body; moderately long, rounded snout; short, low tail; snout greater than mouth width but slightly shorter than distance from mouth to origin of pectoral fin; anterior nasal flap short; upper jaw teeth narrow with median cusps and two lateral pairs of cusplets; lower jaw teeth broad and bandlike with narrow oblique cusps and lateral blades; upper jaw with about 27 tooth rows, lower jaw with about 28; dorsal fins preceded by spine; first dorsal fin origin posterior to free tip of pectoral fin; second dorsal fin higher and longer based than first dorsal fin; distance between dorsal fins less than distance from tip of snout to first gill slit; pectoral fin with broadly rounded rear corner; dorsal lobe of caudal fin relatively short, about equal to head length; posterior margins of fins not broadly fringed; dermal denticles along sides of body with very slender, hooked crowns and widely and randomly spaced
Blackish brown dorsally, grading to black ventrally, with indistinct broad, elongate black area above and behind pelvic fin base, elongate black marks on caudal fin base, and pale yellow spot on head
Distribution
Western Atlantic from Virginia, Florida
Gulf of Mexico (according to George Burgess, pers. com., March 1994)
Habitat Associations
Near bottom from 100 to 1,000 m, ascending in the water column during the night to depths of 70 to 490 m
Biology
Maximum known size is 33 cm TL
Males mature at about 26 cm TL, females mature at about 33 cm TL, and young are born at about 13 cm TL
Found on outer continental shelves and upper slopes on or near the bottom at depths of 100 to 1,000 m; also pelagic at depths of 70 to 480 m over water 2,240 m deep off Argentina (Ref. 247). Feeds on bony fish, octopus, squid and deep-water shrimp (Ref. 5578). Ovoviviparous (Ref. 205).
IUCN Red List Status: Least Concern (LC), assessed 2019-06-21. Resilience: Very low (Fec assumed to be <10).
Phylogeny and Morphologically Similar Fishes
Distinguished from other species of the family by a combination of characters
Commercial or Environmental Importance
Fisheries: of no interest.
References
Krefft 1968
Krefft 1980
Schwartz and Burgess 1975
Castro 1983
Compagno 1984
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 1 - Hexanchiformes to Lamniformes. FAO Fish. Synop. 125(4/1):1-249. Rome, FAO.
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.
Alagaraja, K. and A.G. Jhingran (1976) Application of von Bertalanffy's growth model to Setipinna phasa (Hamilton) when growth is allometric. Aquaculture 9:181-186.
Bernardes, R.Á., J.L. de Figueiredo, A.R. Rodrigues, L.G. Fischer, C.M. Vooren, M. Haimovici and C.L.D.B. Rossi-Wongtschowski (2005) Peixes de zona econômica exclusiva da região sudeste-sul do Brasil: Levantamento com armadilhas, pargueiras e rede de arrasto de fundo. São Paulo: Editora da Universidade de São Paulo. 295 p.
Weigmann, S. (2016) Annotated checklist of the living sharks, batoids and chimaeras (Chondrichthyes) of the world, with a focus on biogeographical diversity. J. Fish Biol. 88(1):1-201. DOI: 10.1111/jfb.12874
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