354 Shark and Company 



bearing a 1 14 -inch embryo that was nearly ready for birth! It is com- 

 monly known as the Green dogfish. 



Another member of this family, the Portuguese shark (Centro- 

 scynmus coelolepis Bocage and Brito Capello, 1864), may be a record- 

 holder among sharks of the deep. Marion Grey, of the Chicago Natural 

 History Museum, an authority on deep-sea fishes, says the Portuguese 

 shark "is apparently the deepest-living shark known." The deepest 

 known record for the Portuguese shark is 2,718 meters (8,917 feet).' 

 The Portuguese shark, which grows to about 3 feet, is found on both 



^""^ 



The Portuguese shark (Centroscymnus coelolepsis). 



Courtesy, Harvard Museum of Comparative Zoology 



sides of the North Atlantic. It was once fished off Portugal. Another 

 deep-water species, the Black dogfish^ {Centroscyll'mm fabricii Rein- 

 hardt, 1825), is often found in the same waters frequented by the 

 Portuguese shark. It grows to about 2 V2 feet. 



Family Dalatiidae—Spi'NELEss Dogfishes 

 One of the smallest sharks ever recorded— a 6-incher— and one of 

 the largest sharks— a 1 tonner— are found in this family, which includes 

 about eight species. The Dalatiidae differ principally from the Spiny dog- 

 fishes on the basis of dorsal spines. Dalatiidae sharks do not have a spine 

 in front of the second dorsal, nor, in most cases, in front of the first dorsal 

 either. 



Greenland Shark 



(Sovmiosus microcephaliis Bloch and Schneider, 1801) 



(Also Known as Sleeper Shark, Gurry Shark) 



Huge as it is— up to 24 feet long, more than 1 ton in weight— the 



Greenland shark is so ridiculously easy to catch that Eskimos are some- 



" However, sharks (not identified) have been seen at much greater depths. They 

 have been observed near the bottom on the deepest French and U.S. dives— Atlantic 

 and Pacific. 



^ Neither the Black dogfish nor any of these tiny sharks is the so-called "Black 

 shark" found in some home aquaria. The tropical fish fancier's "Black shark" sold as a 

 rare fish and proudly displayed as a shark is a fresh-water teleost (Morulhis chrysophe- 

 kadion Bleeker, 1865) found in Java, Borneo, Sumatra, Cambodia, Indo-China, Laos, 

 and Thailand. In Thailand, it is called the pla ka, or crow fish, in allusion to its black 

 color. The only people who call it the "Black shark" are tropical fish buyers— or sellers. 



