Etmopterus benchleyi
| Etmopterus benchleyi | ||||||||||||
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Etmopterus benchleyi |
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Etmopterus benchleyi | ||||||||||||
| Vásquez , Ebert & Long , 2015 |
Etmopterus benchleyi is a small species of shark from the lantern shark family(Etmopteridae) that occurs on the Pacific coast of Central America. The species was first described in 2015 and in honor of Peter Benchley named, author of "The novel Jaws " (Jaws) .
features
The largest female examined for the first description of Etmopterus benchleyi was 51.5 cm in length, the largest male was 32.5 cm long but not yet sexually mature. The body is spindle-shaped and becomes increasingly narrow towards the tail. The head is not flattened. The muzzle is short, the mouth wide and curved. Different tooth groups can be found in the dentition. The teeth in the upper jaw have a single central point that are flanked by 1 to 2 pairs of small points. In the lower jaw, the teeth are inclined to the side away from the center of the body. The placoid scales are short and slender with small, hook-like, conical tips. The scales are tightly packed around the eyes and the cleft gills; there are only individual scales around the mouth and below the mouth. The placoid scales are arranged irregularly below the second dorsal fin. Both dorsal fins are about the same size, but the sting of the second dorsal fin is on average twice (1.6 to 2.3 times) as high as the sting of the first. The distance between the two dorsal fins is about 20% of the total length of the fish.
Etmopterus benchleyi is uniformly black in color and the luminous organs that give the lantern sharks their name are not differentiated in color. Only the rear edges of the pectoral and dorsal fins and the caudal fin are unpigmented. The pupils are light green.
Way of life
The type specimens of Etmopterus benchleyi were caught on the continental slope at depths of 836 to 1443 meters, with the larger specimens being caught at greater depths than the smaller ones. In the largest female examined so far, there were five eggs with no recognizable embryos with a diameter of 2.5 to 3.4 cm. Like other lantern sharks, Etmopterus benchleyi is viviparous ( ovoviviparous ).