Green lanternshark

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Green lanternshark

Conservation status
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Chondrichthyes
Subclass: Elasmobranchii
Order: Squaliformes
Family: Dalatiidae
Genus: Etmopterus
Species: E. virens
Binomial name
Etmopterus virens
Bigelow, Schroeder & Springer, 1953
Range of the green lanternshark (in blue)
Range of the green lanternshark (in blue)

The green lanternshark, Etmopterus virens, is a shark of the family Dalatiidae found in the western central Atlantic from Texas to Florida and the northern Gulf of Mexico, and Nicaragua and Suriname between latitudes 30° N and 9° N, at depths of between 100 and 1,000 m. Its length is up to 26 cm.

The green lanternshark is a dwarf slender lanternshark with a long narrow tail. The gill openings are very short. The upper teeth generally have less than three pairs of cusplets. The trunk has short stout hooked denticles on the side, and these also cover the snout.

They may school and communally attack and eat quite large prey, for example squid.

Coloration is dark brown or grey-brown, with an elongated broad black mark above and behind the pelvic fins and other marks at the tail base and along the axis. The underside is black.

Reproduction is presumed to be ovoviviparous.

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