Sawback angelshark
(Squatina aculeata)

Squatina aculeata (Dumeril, 1829)

Diagnosis

A greatly flattened, raylike shark with no ocelli (eye-spots) on body; trunk rather slender; eye larger than spiracle. Nasal flap strongly fringed. Strong, prominent dorsal spines, almost pyramidal in form, arranged along trunk midline from head to dorsal fins and median between these fins; some spines above eyes and above snout; ventral surfaces with denticles only upon anterior margins of pectoral and pelvic fins and centre of caudal peduncle. Rear tips of pelvic fins extend to the level of the first dorsal fin origin. Mean tooth count 21/21. Colour olive-brown or light-brown dorsally, sometimes rather sandy, with some darker blotches and occasional white spots, but not as obvious ocelli; paler ventrally.


Size

To about 180cm TL but typically to circa 130cm; size at birth uncertain.


Status and Distribution

Relatively common within a Western Mediterranean range extending from Gibraltar to the Gulf of Gabes, Tunisia; also Spanish coasts, Cote d'Azur, and Western Italy to Sicily. Not yet recorded from Malta or eastwards from the Ionian Sea.


Biology

A coastal angelshark typically found on or over muddy bottoms at depths of 50 to 500m; behavioural ecology poorly known but apparently a predator of small teleosts such as jacks; also small sharks such as Scyliorhinus or Squalus spp. and benthic invertebrates, doubtless caught in very similar mode to S. squatina (i.e., with the angelshark lying cryptically buried within bottom substrate). Ovoviviparous, but scant reproductive data available; matures at about124cm.