Shortspine spurdog

Shortspine spurdog
Conservation status
Data Deficient
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Chondrichthyes
Subclass:	Elasmobranchii
Order:	Squaliformes
Family:	Squalidae
Genus:	Squalus
Species:	S. mitsukurii
Binomial name
Squalus mitsukurii Jordan & Snyder, 1903

The shortspine spurdog, Squalus mitsukurii, is a dogfish, a member of the family Squalidae, found circumglobally on the continental and insular shelves and upper slopes, in temperate and subtropical oceans between latitudes 45° N and 55° S, from the surface to 950 m. Its length is up to 75 cm.

The shortspine spurdog is a large dogfish with a long, angular snout and a small mouth slightly more than half the snout length. The body is usually without spots, and the first dorsal fin spine is over the pectoral fins. It feeds on bony fishes including hake, snoek, conger eels, lanternfishes, cephalopods, and crustaceans.

Coloration is pearl-grey above, white below, with white-edged fins, and sides rarely with white spots.

Its reproduction is ovoviviparous, with about 4 to 9 pups in a litter.

See also

• List of sharks

References

• Froese, Rainer; Pauly, Daniel (eds.) (2006). "Squalus mitsukurii" in FishBase. July 2006 version.