Heptranchias perlo
Sharpnose Sevengill Shark
NS
G3
Collection Details
Specimens
Photos
There are no photos available for this taxon yet.
Records
Taxonomic Hierarchy
Chondrichthyes (Cartilaginous Fishes)
Hexanchiformes (Cow and Frilled Sharks)
Hexanchidae (Cow Sharks)
Heptranchias
Heptranchias perlo (Sharpnose Sevengill 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.
It may contain errors in spelling, punctuation, or formatting.
When citing, please reference the original source rather than this page.
Learn more about our species accounts.
Characters
Mouth is narrow and strongly arched. Upper jaw teeth are small and narrow, with a long cusp and often small mesial and lateral cusplets. Lower jaw teeth are comblike, with a few short, mesial cusplets, a high cusp, and seven or eight progressively smaller lateral cusplets. Eye is relatively large. Gill slits are large and number seven. Caudal peduncle is relatively long; distance from end of dorsal fin base to origin of dorsal caudal lobe is about twice length of dorsal fin base.
Color is brownish gray dorsally and lighter ventrally. Body lacks spots, but dorsal and upper caudal lobe are black tipped (more evident in young than in older individuals).
Distribution
Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea in the western Atlantic
Habitat Associations
Tropical to temperate seas between 27 and 1,720 m
Biology
Food consists of squids and bony fishes
Maximum known size is 137 cm TL
Litters range from 9 to 20 young. Males mature at about 85 cm TL, females mature at about 89 to 93 cm TL, and young are about 26 cm TL at birth
Found on the outer continental and insular shelves and upper slopes in depths of 100 to 400 (Ref. 13573, 11230), also inshore and down to 1,000 m (Ref. 6871, 11230). Feeds on small sharks and rays, small bony fish, shrimps, crabs, lobsters, squid, and cuttlefish (Ref. 5578). Ovoviviparous (Ref. 205), with 9-12 young born per litter (Ref. 247). Very active and aggressive when captured and quick to bite but too small to be very dangerous to people (Ref. 247). Liver utilized as a source of oil. Maximum length may reach 214 cm, but this is uncertain.
IUCN Red List Status: Near Threatened (NT), assessed 2019-11-21. Resilience: Very low (Fec=9).
Phylogeny and Morphologically Similar Fishes
Distinguished from other species of the family by the combination of characters described
Commercial or Environmental Importance
Fisheries: minor commercial.
References
Bigelow and Schroeder 1948a
Applegate et al. 1979
Castro 1983
Boeseman 1984
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.
Bass, A.J., P.C. Hemstra and L.J.V. Compagno (1986) Hexanchidae. p. 45-47. In M.M. Smith and P.C. Heemstra (eds.) Smiths' sea fishes. Springer-Verlag, Berlin.
Last, P.R. and J.D. Stevens (1994) Sharks and rays of Australia. CSIRO, Australia. 513 p.
Sierra, L.M., R. Claro and O.A. Popova (1994) Alimentacion y relaciones tróficas. p. 263-284. In Rodolfo Claro (ed.) Ecología de los Peces Marinos de Cuba. Instituto de Oceanología Academia de Ciencias de Cuba and Centro de Investigaciones de Quintana Roo, Mexico.
Cortés, E. (1999) Standardized diet compositions and trophic levels of sharks. ICES J. Mar. Sci. 56:707-717.
Hennemann, R.M. (2001) Sharks & rays: elasmobranch guide of the world. IKAN-Unterwasserarchiv, Frankfurt, Germany, 304 p.
Comments On Heptranchias perlo