Apristurus laurussonii

• Overview
• Interesting Facts
• Common Names
• Description
• Taxonomy
• Similar Species
• More Info
• Further Reading
• Notes

Overview

Family : Cat sharks ; Fairly common on the upper continental slopes , usually over mud or other soft sea bottom [1]. Oviparous [2].

Interesting Facts

Common Names

Click on the language to view common names.

Description

Habitat

May be found at depths of 560 to 1462 meters.

Typically found in water with a depth of 0 to -2,628 meters (0 to -8,622 feet).[3]

Ecology: Apristurus laurussonii is apparently common on the continental slope at 560 to 2,060 m depth (Compagno in prep. b , Compagno et al. 2005). Apristurus laurussonii together with A. parvipinnis are reported to be the commonest Apristurus species in the Gulf of Mexico.

Maximum size recorded is ~72 cm TL (Nakaya and Sato 1998, 1999). The smallest mature female reported in the scientific literature is 59.2 cm TL (Nakaya and Sato 1998, 1999). Reproduction is oviparous with one egg per oviduct . Egg cases are thick, and about 6 cm long and 2.5 cm wide. The anterior end of the case has a long weak fibrous thread on each corner. The posterior end has two small processes each with a long coiled tendril . The surface of the egg case is covered by short, fine fibers that form a pattern of numerous fine striations running the length of the case (Nakaya and Sato 1998). As in shallow water scyliorhinids the coiled tendrils are probably used to attach the egg cases to hard substrates and/or biogenic structures as they are laid.

Apristurus species are relatively small, sluggish sharks that live on or near the bottom . Diet includes crustaceans (penaeid shrimps, euphausiids ), squids and small fishes (Compagno 1984, in prep. b).[4].

List of Habitats :

•     9     Marine Neritic   
  
•     9.1     Marine Neritic - Pelagic   
[more info]

Taxonomy

Synonyms

Apristurus atlanticus • Apristurus laurussoni • Apristurus laurussoni (Saemundsson • Apristurus laurussoni (Saemundsson, 1922) • Apristurus laurussonii • Apristurus maderensis • Apristurus maderensis Cadenat & Maul • Scyllium laurussonii • Scyllium laurussonii Saemundsson

Notes

Name Status: Accepted Name .

Last scrutiny: Data last modified by FishBase 17-Feb-1994

The genus Apristurus contains at least 32 described species and a relatively large number of potentially undescribed ones. Morphological conservatism and, until recently, a lack of objectively defined characters makes this one of the most taxonomically confused shark genera (Compagno 1984, Nakaya and Sato 1999).

Nakaya and Sato (1999) defined three species groups within Apristurus: the longicephalus-group (two species), brunneus-group (20 species), and spongiceps-group (10 species). A. laurussonii belongs to the brunneus-group, characterized by: a short, wide snout (prenarial length
A. atlanticus was preciously distinguished from A. laurussonii (Nakaya and Sato 1998), however Iglésias and Nakaya (2004) could not find any significant differences between the holotype of A. atlanticus and A. laurussonii, and therefore consider A. atlanticus to be a junior synonym of A. laurussonii. Note : the illustration of A. atlanticus in Compagno (1984) is actually A. aphyodes (Nakaya and Sato 1998).[4].

Similar Species

Members of the genus Apristurus

ZipcodeZoo has pages for 39 species and subspecies in this genus:

A. acanutus (Flatnose Cat Shark) · A. albisoma (Whitish Catshark) · A. ampliceps (Roughskin Catshark) · A. aphyodes (White Ghost Catshark) · A. atlanticus (Atlantic Catshark) · A. australis (Pinocchio Catshark) · A. brunneus (Brown Cat Shark) · A. bucephalus (Bighead Catshark) · A. canutus (Hoary Cat Shark) · A. exsanguis (Deepwater Catshark) · A. fedorovi (Stout Catshark) · A. gibbosus (Humpback Cat Shark) · A. herklotsi (Longfin Cat Shark) · A. indicus (Smallbelly Cat Shark) · A. internatus (Shortnose Demon Catshark) · A. investigatoris (Broadnose Cat Shark) · A. japonicus (Japanese Cat Shark) · A. kampae (Longnose Cat Shark) · A. laurussoni (Atlantic Ghost Cat Shark) · A. laurussonii (Flathead Catshark) · A. longicephalus (Smooth-Belly Catshark) · A. macrorhynchus (Flathead Cat Shark) · A. macrostomus (Broadmouth Cat Shark) · A. manis (Ghost Cat Shark) · A. melanoasper (Black Roughscale Catshark) · A. microps (Smalleye Cat Shark) · A. micropterygeus (Smalldorsal Cat Shark) · A. nasutus (Largenose Cat Shark) · A. parvipinnis (Smallfin Cat Shark) · A. parvipinnisin (Smallfin Cat Shark) · A. pinguis (Fat Catshark) · A. platyrhynchus (Spatulasnout Cat Shark) · A. profundorum (Deep-Water Catshark) · A. riveri (Broadgill Cat Shark) · A. saldanha (Saldanha Cat Shark) · A. sibogae (Pale Catshark Pale Catshark) · A. sinensis (South China Cat Shark) · A. spongiceps (Spongehead Cat Shark) · A. stenseni (Panama Ghost Cat Shark)

More Info

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• Search using Specialized Databases: GenBank | Medline | Scirus | CISTI/CAL | Agricola Periodicals | Agricola Books

Further Reading

• Brito, A. (1991). Catalogo de los pesces de las Islas Canarias. Francisco Lemus, la Laguna. 230 p.
• Compagno, L., Dando, M. and Fowler, S.L. 2005. A field guide to the sharks of the world. Harper Collins Publishers Ltd., London.
• Compagno, L.J.V. 1984. FAO Species Catalogue. Sharks of the World: an annotated and illustrated catalogue of the shark species known to date. Part 2 - Carcharhiniformes. FAO Fisheries Synopsis No. 125, Vol. 4(2). FAO, Rome.
• Compagno, L.J.V. In prep. b. Sharks of the World. An annotated and illustrated catalogue of the shark species known to date. Volume 3. (Carcharhiniformes). FAO Species Catalogue for Fisheries Purposes No. 1, Vol.3. FAO, Rome.
• Compagno, Leonard J. V. / Hamlett, William C., ed. 1999. Checklist of Living Elasmobranchs. Sharks, Skates, and Rays: The Biology of Elasmobranch Fishes. Johns Hopkins University Press. Baltimore, Maryland, USA. 471-498. ISBN: 0-8018-6048-2.
• Coppola, S.R., W. Fischer, L. Garibaldi, N. Scialabba and K.E. Carpenter (1994). SPECIESDAB: Global species database for fishery purposes. User's manual. FAO Computerized Information Series (Fisheries). No. 9. Rome, FAO. 103 p.
• Eschmeyer, William N., ed. 1998. Catalog of Fishes. Special Publication of the Center for Biodiversity Research and Information, no. 1, vol 1-3. California Academy of Sciences. San Francisco, California, USA. 2905. ISBN: 0-940228-47-5.
• Fritzsch, B. and P. Moller (1995). A history of electroreception. p. 39-55. In P. Moller, Electric Fishes: history and behavior. Fish and Fisheries series 17. Chapman & Hall, London.
• IUCN SSC Shark Specialist Group. Specialist Group website. Available at: http://www.iucnssg.org/.
• IUCN. 2004. 2004 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Available at: www.iucnredlist.org. (Accessed: 23 November 2004).
• IUCN. 2007. 2007 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Available at: www.iucnredlist.org. (Accessed: 12th September 2007).
• Iglésias, S.P. and Nakaya, K. 2004. Apristurus atlanticus (Koefoed, 1927), a junior synonym of A. laurussonii (Saemundsson, 1922) (Chondrichthyes: Carcharhiniformes: Scyliorhinidae). Cybium 28(3): 217-223.
• Jonsson, G. (1992). Islenskir fiskar. Fiolvi, Reykjavik, 568 pp.
• Nakaya, K. and Sato, K. 1998. Taxonomic review of Apristurus laurussoni (Saemundsson, 1922) from the eastern North Atlantic (Elasmobranchii: Scyliorhinidae). Cybium 22(2): 149-157.
• Nakaya, K. and Sato, K. 1999. Species grouping within the genus Apristurus (Elasmobranchii: Scyliorhinidae). In: B. Séret and J.-Y. Sire (eds). Proceedings of the 5th Indo-Pacific Fish Conference (Nouméa, 3-8 November 1997). Paris, Society Francaise d’Ichthyologie et Instutue de Recherches pour le Development: 307–320.
• Shark Specialist Group. For more information, see the Specialist Group website.

Notes

Contributors

• Brands, S.J. (comp.) 1989-present. The Taxonomicon. Universal Taxonomic Services, Zwaag, The Netherlands. Accessed January 15, 2012.
• Compagno, Leonard J.V. (from FishBase).
• Duffy, C. & Huveneers, C. 2004. Apristurus laurussonii. In: IUCN 2006. 2006 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. <www.iucnredlist.org>. Downloaded on 21 October 2006.
• Duffy, C. & Huveneers, C. 2007. Apristurus laurussonii. In: IUCN 2011. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2011.2. <www.iucnredlist.org>. Downloadedon 30January2012.
• FishBase. Release date: January 5, 2010
• Froese, R., and D. Pauly. FishBase 2004. International Center for Living Aquatic Resources Management.
• Global Biodiversity Information Facility. Accessed March 05, 2008. http://www.gbif.org Mediated distribution data from 3 providers.
• IUCN 2012. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2011.2. . Downloaded on January 28, 2012.
• Ruggiero M., Gordon D., Bailly N., Kirk P., Nicolson D. (2011). The Catalogue of Life Taxonomic Classification, Edition 2, Part A. In: Species 2000 & ITIS Catalogue of Life: 2011 Annual Checklist (Bisby F.A., Roskov Y.R., Orrell T.M., Nicolson D., Paglinawan L.E., Bailly N., Kirk P.M., Bourgoin T., Baillargeon G., Ouvrard D., eds). DVD; Species 2000: Reading, UK.

Data Sources

Accessed through GBIF Data Portal March 05, 2008:

• FishBase: FishBase DiGIR Provider - Philippine Server
• Institute of Marine and Coastal Sciences, Rutgers University: Atlantic Reference Centre (OBIS Canada)
• Institute of Marine and Coastal Sciences, Rutgers University: ChEssBase (CoML)
• Institute of Marine and Coastal Sciences, Rutgers University: Ifremer BIOCEAN database (Deep Sea Benthic Fauna)
• Institute of Marine and Coastal Sciences, Rutgers University: iziko South African Museum - Shark Collection
• Institute of Marine and Coastal Sciences, Rutgers University: The Deepwater Program: Northern Gulf of Mexico Continental Slope Habitat and Benthic Ecology - DgoMB: Fish
• Museum national d'histoire naturelle: Ichtyologie

Identifiers

• Biodiversity Heritage Library NamebankID: 120491
• Catalogue of Life Accepted Name Code: Fis-23002
• Fishbase Species ID: 770
• Integrated Taxonomic Information System (ITIS) Taxonomic Serial Number (TSN): 159992
• IUCN ID: 192209
• Zipcode Zoo Species Identifier: 102826

Footnotes

1. Springer, S. (1990). Scyliorhinidae. p. 90-94. In J.C. Quero, J.C. Hureau, C. Karrer, A. Post and L. Saldanha (eds.) Check-list of the fishes of the eastern tropical Atlantic (CLOFETA). JNICT, Lisbon; SEI, Paris; and UNESCO, Paris. Vol. 1. ... [back]
2. Dulvy, N.K. and J.D. Reynolds (1997). Evolutionary transitions among egg-laying, live-bearing and maternal inputs in sharks and rays. Proc. R. Soc. Lond. B 264:1309-1315. [back]
3. Mean = -891.580 meters (-2,925.131 feet), Standard Deviation = 841.520 based on 48 observations. Ocean depth information for each observation from British Oceanographic Data Centre. [back]
4. Duffy, C. & Huveneers, C. 2007. Apristurus laurussonii. In: IUCN 2011. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2011.2. <www.iucnredlist.org>. Downloaded on 30 January 2012. [back]

©2004-2012 David Stang. All rights reserved.