Fatspine Spurdog

2/20/2019

Source: Australian National Fish Collection, CSIRO.

This week, we want to introduce you to the fatspine spurdog (Squalus crassispinus), a pale grey dogfish in the family Squalidae. They have a blunt, short snout and medium-sized eyes. Often tinged with a bronze-like color, they have a snowy white belly and dark tips on their dorsal fins and a white margin on the caudal fin. Like others in the Squalidae family, they have robust, smooth dorsal fin spines.

You can find these sharks in the North West Cape to off Rowley Shoals, Western Australia all the way to the Huon Gulf and Bismarck Sea, Papua New Guinea.

Very little is known about this shark! We do know that they are viviparous, and males seem to mature around 45 cm total length (TL). We could not find an IUCN assessment for them.

WHAT DID YOU LEARN ABOUT THIS ANIMAL?

GLOSSARY

Caudal fin: The tail fin.
Dorsal fin: Fin located on the back.
Genus: A group of organisms ranking above a species and below a family.
IUCN: International Union for Conservation of Nature.

Viviparous: Eggs hatch inside the female's body and the babies are fed by a placenta which transfers nourishment from the mother to the babies (via an umbilical cord which is connected to the baby shark between the pectoral fins).