Japanese bull head shark
| Japanese bull head shark | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Japanese bullhead shark ( Heterodontus japonicus ) |
||||||||||||
| Systematics | ||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||
| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Heterodontus japonicus | ||||||||||||
| Maclay & Macleay , 1884 |
The Japanese bull head shark ( Heterodontus japonicus ) is a 90 to 110 cm long bull head shark with striking dark saddle stripes. It occurs only in the western North Pacific off the coast of Japan , Korea , northern China and Taiwan .
Appearance and characteristics
The Japanese bull head shark usually has a body length of 90 to 110 cm. He has a light brown body color with wide, dark brown saddle stripes.
The shark has a cylindrical body with a conical head. The snout is very small and broadly rounded, the eye bulges are low. It has an anal fin and two dorsal fins , both of which are thorny. The first dorsal fin begins above the middle of the pectoral fins, the second dorsal fin above the end of the pelvic fins. The shark has five comparatively long gill slits and a small injection hole (spiraculum) below the eye.
Way of life
The Japanese bullhead shark is a relatively common species in the area of the continental shelf and on island shelves , where it lives near the coast (tidal zone) near the sea floor at a depth of 6 to 37 m. He prefers stony or seagrass (kelp) overgrown surfaces on which he can "walk" with the help of his pectoral fins. It feeds primarily on molluscs , but also hunts other invertebrates such as crabs and sea urchins, as well as small fish.
Like all bull head sharks, it is oviparous and lays relatively simple eggs. These have flat combs that run diagonally to the shell axis and short horn threads at the ends of the egg shell. Several females each season lay two eggs together under stony shelters. The young sharks hatch after about 12 months with a size of about 18 cm. The animals reach sexual maturity at a length of about 70 cm.
distribution
The Japanese bull head shark is found only in the western North Pacific off the coast of Japan , Korea , northern China and Taiwan .
literature
- Leonard Compagno , Marc Dando, Sarah Fowler: Sharks of the World . Princeton University Press , Princeton and Oxford 2005, ISBN 978-0-691-12072-0 , pp. 151-152.
Web links
- Japanese bullhead shark on Fishbase.org (English)
- Entry in the database of the Shark Foundation
- Heterodontus japonicus inthe IUCN 2013 Red List of Threatened Species . Posted by: Tanaka, S. & Nakaya, K., 2007. Retrieved November 5, 2013.