Page 328 - (DK) Ocean - The Definitive Visual Guide

326 ANIMAL LIFE

ORDER SQUALIFORMES ORDER SQUALIFORMES The sluggish Greenland shark has a
heavy, cylindrical body that is usually
Velvet Belly Greenland Shark brown or gray. It has a short, rounded
snout and two equal-sized dorsal fins.
Lanternshark Somniosus microcephalus As well as feeding on a variety of live
LENGTH Up to 21 ft prey, including fish, sea birds, and seals,
Etmopterus spinax
(6.4 m) this shark is also a scavenger, often
LENGTH Up to 18 in WEIGHT Up to 1,710 lb eating dead cetaceans and drowned
(45 cm)
(775 kg) land animals, such as reindeer. It is
WEIGHT Up to 2 lb (850 g) often caught by hook-and-line at ice
DEPTH 0–8,694 ft
DEPTH Typically (0–2,650 m) holes while it hunts seals, but its flesh
650–1,650 ft (200–500 m), DISTRIBUTION North Atlantic and Arctic waters is poisonous and must be boiled
up to 8,200 ft (2,500 m)
several times before it becomes edible.
DISTRIBUTION Eastern Atlantic and Mediterranean
As this small shark searches for fish
and squid in the darkness, its black
belly is illuminated by tiny, bright light
organs called photophores. It has large
eyes and two dorsal fins, each with a
strong, grooved spine in front. It is one
of about 30 similar species that
include the smallest known sharks.

broad,
interlocking
teeth on
lower jaw

ORDER SQUATINIFORMES gills underneath. It draws water in ORDER SQUALIFORMES Many cetaceans and large fish,
through large, paired holes called including other sharks, suffer when
Pacific Angel Shark spiracles behind its eyes and pumps it Cookiecutter Shark cookiecutter sharks are around. This
over the gills. Rearing up like a cobra, small, cigar-shaped shark is a parasite
Squatina californica the Pacific angel shark ambushes Isistius brasiliensis that bites chunks out of its prey. Using
LENGTH Up to 6 ft (1.8 m) passing fish including halibut, croakers, LENGTH Up to 20 in its unique thick, flexible lips to hold
and other bottom-dwellers. It has also (50 cm) onto its victim by suction, it then twists
WEIGHT Up to 60 lb
(27 kg) been known to snap at divers and WEIGHT Not recorded itself around so that its razor-sharp
fishermen who have provoked it. At lower teeth bite out a cookie-shaped
DEPTH Typically 10– DEPTH 0–11,500 ft
1,000 ft (3–300 m), up to night, it swims for short distances (0–3,500 m) piece of flesh. It is active at night,
656 ft (200 m) above the seabed, sculling along with luring its victims with glowing green
DISTRIBUTION Continental shelf of the eastern its tail. Females give birth to litters of DISTRIBUTION Atlantic, Pacific, and southern bioluminescent lights on its belly.
Pacific six to ten pups after a gestation of Indian Ocean It also preys on squid and crustaceans.
nine to ten months. Young fish do
Resembling something between a not mature until they are at least ten
squashed shark and a ray, the Pacific years old and can live until they are ORDER PRISTIOPHORIFORMES Like all sawsharks, this species has a
angel shark spends most of its time 35 years old. This fish used to be head that is flattened and extended to
lying quietly on the seabed. Its sandy abundant in the waters off California Longnose Sawshark form a long, saw-like projection, or
or gray back, peppered with dark spots until intense fishing caused a rostrum. This is edged with rows of
and scattered dark rings, provides good population collapse in the 1990s. Pristiophorus cirratus large, sharp teeth. Two long sensory
camouflage. Though superficially A gill net ban ended the fishery. LENGTH Up to 5 ft barbels hang down from the underside
similar to a ray, this fish is marked out This shark is categorized as Near (1.5 m) of the rostrum, which is studded with
as a true shark by the gill slits on the Threatened on the IUCN Red List WEIGHT Not recorded further sense organs, and the shark
side of its head, while rays have their of endangered species. uses these to detect vibrations and
DEPTH 130–2,067 ft
(40–630 m) electrical fields. It seeks out and kills
prey, such as fish and crustaceans, by
DISTRIBUTION Temperate and subtropical waters of poking around on the seabed and
southern Australia slashing out sideways with its rostrum.

OCEAN LIFE