| Hooktooth dogfish | |
|---|---|
| Conservation status | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Chondrichthyes |
| Subclass: | Elasmobranchii |
| Order: | Squaliformes |
| Family: | Etmopteridae |
| Genus: | Aculeola de Buen, 1959 |
| Species: | A. nigra |
| Binomial name | |
| Aculeola nigra (de Buen, 1959) |
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| Range of hooktooth dogfish (in blue) | |
The hooktooth dogfish, Aculeola nigra, is a small, little known dogfish, the only member of the genus Aculeola.
The type specimen is held at the National Natural History Museum, Santiago, Chile.
Contents |
Hooktooth dogfish have a blunt flattened snout, very large eyes, a relatively long distance from the eye to the first gill slit, small grooved dorsal spines, a first dorsal fin about halfway between the pectoral and pelvic fins, and a broad caudal fin. They are black with a maximum length of only 60 cm.
They are found in the Eastern South Pacific along the coast of South America from Peru to central Chile.
This shark is a little-known yet common shark that lives between 110 and 560 m. They are ovoviviparous with at least 3 pups per litter. They probably eat bony fish and invertebrates.