 Photographer: Carl Bento © Australian Museum The largetooth cookiecutter shark (Isistius plutodus) is the second species in the Isistius genus. (Learn about the cookiecutter shark here) It has a cigar-shaped body, a short snout and two spineless dorsal fins. It has a row of 19 large teeth on their lower jaw. The placement of their eyes may lead to a sort of binocular vision.
The species looks like the cookiecutter shark (Isistius brasiliensis). The two species can can be told apart by their colouration and how many teeth they each have in their mouth.  © Roberto Pillon The Blonde skate (Raja brachyura), also known as the Blonde ray, is a relatively large skate, reaching a maximum size of ~120 cm total length (TL) and a common size of 40-80 cm TL. They are a yellowish/light brown colour on top, covered in dark spots that go to the edges of their pectoral fins; they are white underneath. It is thought that the Blonde Ray gets as old as 15 years of age. It is endemic to northeast Atlantic waters and is rarely seen in the western Mediterranean Sea. It prefers softer, sandy sediments in the NE Atlantic up to 150 m (492 ft), and is seen from 10-300 m (32-984 ft) deep in the Mediterranean Sea.
 The next shark in our line up belongs in the Scyliorhinidae (catshark) family, and is aptly named for its total black color. The black roughscale catshark (Apristurus melanoasper) is a rather small (reaching a max length of 0.76 m/2.5 ft) deep-watered shark. They are usually found anywhere from 512-1,520 m (1,680-4,987 ft).
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AuthorTFUI Founder Melissa C. Marquez is author of all animal bios and "Behind the Fins" segments. SEE MELISSA'S TEDx TALK HERE:
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