52 



FISHERY BULLETIN OF THE FISH AND WILDLIFE SERVICE 



Figure 19. — Black dogfish (Cenlroscyllium fabricii) , female, about 25 inches long, from the southeast slope of Georges 

 Bank. A, first three upper teeth counted from center of jaw; B, twentieth upper tooth; C, first three lower teeth; 

 D, lower sixteenth tooth; about 5 times natural size. From Bigelow and Schroeder. Drawings by E. N. Fischer. 



which stand almost directly under the front origin 

 of the second dorsal fin instead of some distance 

 in front of the latter; in its small pectorals of 

 rounded outline; in the shapes of its teeth, each of 

 which has 3 or 5 sharp points; in its broad rounded 

 snout; and in its very dark color. Like the spiny 

 dogfish, it lacks an anal fin. 



Size. — Adult specimens range from 2 to 3% feet 

 in length, that is, about the same size as the spiny 

 dogfish. 



Color. — Uniform dark brown to black, below as 

 well as above. 



Habits. — In West Greenland waters cephalopods, 

 pelagic crustaceans, and medusae have been found 

 in their stomachs, and females have been taken 

 with embryos in February. Perhaps they are 

 luminescent, for their skins bear minute deeply 

 pigmented dots, suggesting the light organs of 

 the brilliantly luminescent shark Isistius brasili- 

 ensis. 



General range. — Northern North Atlantic; Faroe 

 Bank, Faroe-Shetland Channel and Iceland in the 

 east; West Greenland; Davis Strait; and outer 

 slopes of the fishing banks in the west, southward 

 to Georges Bank; chiefly deeper than 150 fathoms. 



Occurrence in the Gulf of Maine. In the years 

 when a long line fishery for halibut was carried on 

 regularly, black dogfish were often caught along 

 the slopes of the offshore Banks, from Grand to 

 Browns and to the eastern part of Georges, if 

 sets weremadedown to 200 fathoms or deeper. And 

 while they dropped out of sight with the general 

 abandonment of that fishery, no doubt they are as 

 plentiful now as formerly, for we trawled about 

 100 of them, 6 to 24% inches long, off southwestern 

 Nova Scotia, at 290 to 580 fathoms, on the Caryn 



of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, in 

 June 1949. How far they range to the west and 

 south, at the appropriate depths, is not known. 38 



Portuguese shark Centroscymnus coelolepis 

 Bocage and Brito Capello, 1864 



Bigelow and Schroeder, 1948, p. 494. 

 Garman, 1913, pi. 14, figs. 5-8. 



Description. — This shark can be identified easily 

 by the fact that while its general appearance 

 (especially the absence of anal fin, the situation of 

 its pelvics far back under the second dorsal, and 

 its rather stout form and blunt snout) might lead 

 a hasty observer to think he had caught a small 

 Greenland shark; more careful examination, by 

 touch if not by eye, would reveal a short spine 

 close in front of each dorsal fin. The first dorsal 

 fin is smaller than in any of our sharks except in 

 the "Greenland," (p. 53), and in Dalatias licha 

 (p. 55), the second dorsal is a little larger than the 

 first, and the pelvics are larger than either of the 

 dorsals. The tail is noticeably short and broad 

 and the rear edge of its upper lobe is notched. The 

 teeth are different in the two jaws; narrow, pointed, 

 and of the seizing type in the upper; broader, ob- 

 long, with a notch on the outer side near the tip, 

 and forming a continuous cutting edge in the lower. 

 The dermal denticles are flat, scale-like, closely 

 overlapping, and clothe the entire trunk. 



Color. — Dark chocolate brown, belly as well as 

 back and fins. 



38 Its range has been said to extend to New York, but without supporting 

 evidence; and report of a young one from the Gulf of Mexico (Goode and 

 Bean, Smithsonian Contrib. Knowledge, vol. 30, 1895, p. 11), probably was 

 based on some other shark. 



