Black dogfish

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iBlack dogfish

Scientific classification

Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Chondrichthyes
Subclass:	Elasmobranchii
Order:	Squaliformes
Family:	Dalatiidae
Genus:	Centroscyllium
Species:	C. fabricii

Binomial name

Centroscyllium fabricii
(Reinhardt, 1825)

Sharks Portal

The black dogfish, Centroscyllium fabricii, is an abundant deepwater dogfish shark.

1 Physical description
2 Distribution
3 Habits and habitat
4 References

[edit] Physical description

The black dogfish has no anal fin, grooved dorsal spines, a second dorsal fin larger than the first, rounded nose, large eyes, trident shaped teeth, a long abdomen, and is blackish-brown in color. It has special luminescent organs scattered over its skin to attract prey which includes pelagic crustaceans, cephalopods, jellyfish and probably bony fish also. It grows to a maximum of 1 m.

[edit] Distribution

It is found in the Western Atlantic Ocean from North Carolina north to Greenland and in the Eastern Atlantic from Iceland south to South Africa. It also possibly lives as far south as Florida and even in the Gulf of Mexico.

[edit] Habits and habitat

It is a common schooling shark with schools possibly segregated by sex. It lives at depths of between 180 to 1,600 m but is usually found around 300 m. In the northern part of its range it will swim closer to the surface. It is ovoviviparous.