Author: Bocage and Capello, 1864
Field Marks:
Black coloration, small dorsal fin spines, no anal fin, short snout, small lanceolate teeth without cusplets in upper jaw and huge high, knife-cusped cutting teeth in lower jaw, mouth very wide and broadly arched, caudal fin with weak subterminal notch and no lower lobe.
Diagnostic Features:
Head rather thick and high; snout broad and short, preoral length less than mouth width and less than distance from lower symphysis to first gill slits; mouth very wide, rather long and broadly arched; postoral grooves very short, much shorter than upper labial furrows; gill slits rather long, longest over half eye length. Pectoral fins narrow and leaf-shaped; apices of pectoral fins nearly reaching base of first dorsal spine; caudal fin with a weak subterminal notch and no lower lobe. Lateral trunk denticles without cross-ridges on crowns. Caudal peduncle short, distance from second dorsal base to upper caudal origin about half second dorsal base.
Geographical Distribution:
Eastern Atlantic: Atlantic slope from Scotland to Spain, Portugal, Senegal.
Habitat and Biology:
A little-known but not uncommon deepwater, temperate to subtropical shark that is essentially confined to the eastern Atlantic continental slope, on or near the bottom at depths of 200 to 1600 m. Probably ovoviviparous. The immense, triangular, razor-edged lower teeth of this shark suggests that it is a formidable predator, that is capable of attacking and dismembering large prey.
Size:
Maximum total length about 110 cm.
Interest to Fisheries:
Reported as being caught in bottom trawls, with line gear, and with fixed bottom nets in the eastern Atlantic, and utilized dried salted for human consumption and for fishmeal.
Type material:
Holotype: Possible syntype in British Museum (Natural History), BMNH 1867.7.23.3. Type Locality: Off Portugal.