Kitefin shark
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| Kitefin shark Fossil range: Eocene to Present[1] |
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| Dalatias licha (Bonnaterre, 1788) |
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 Range of kitefin shark (in blue)
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The kitefin shark, seal shark, or black shark, Dalatias licha, is a dogfish, the only species in the genus Dalatias, found in the Atlantic, western Mediterranean, western Indian Ocean, and western Pacific including Japan, Australia, Hawaii, and New Zealand, at depths of 50 to 1,800 metres. Its length is from 1 to 1.8 metres.
The kitefin shark has a blunt snout and both dorsal fins are approximately equal in size. The trailing edges of all fins are translucent. The teeth are different in each jaw - small slender-cusped upper teeth and very large lower teeth with erect triangular serrated cusps and distal blades. The top caudal lobe is much longer than the lower.
Colour is dark grey to almost black. Kitefin sharks feed on deepwater bony fish, skates, other sharks, cephalopods, and crustaceans, mainly on the continental shelf. They are found singly or in small schools.
Kitefin sharks are ovoviviparous, with 10 to 20 young being born at a time.
[edit] References
- ^ Sepkoski, Jack (2002). "A compendium of fossil marine animal genera (Chondrichthyes entry)". Bulletins of American Paleontology 364: p.560.
- Compagno & Cook (2000). Dalatias licha. 2006 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. IUCN 2006. Retrieved on 12 May 2006. Database entry includes justification for why this species is listed as data deficient
- Dalatias licha (TSN 160651). Integrated Taxonomic Information System. Retrieved on 18 April 2006.
- "Dalatias licha". FishBase. Ed. Ranier Froese and Daniel Pauly. January 2006 version. N.p.: FishBase, 2006.
- Tony Ayling & Geoffrey Cox, Collins Guide to the Sea Fishes of New Zealand, (William Collins Publishers Ltd, Auckland, New Zealand 1982) ISBN 978-0-00-216987-5
