Author: Blainville, 1816
Field Marks:
Short-nosed, cylindrical sharks with no anal fin, 2 very small, spineless, posterior dorsal fins, the first behind the pelvic origins, and coarse denticles or enlarged thorns.
Diagnostic Features:
Trunk stout and cylindrical, without abdominal ridges. Head moderately depressed; last (5th) gill slits abruptly expanded in width; spiracles very small, well behind eyes; nostrils far apart from each other; mouth broadly arched, with very short labial furrows that do not encircle mouth; lips not papillose; teeth alike in both haws, strongly compressed and bladelike, with a cusp and up to three side cusplets in adults, but with a cusp only in young. Two small spineless dorsal fins, both smaller than the pelvic fins, the first with its base over the pelvic bases; caudal fin without a subterminal notch.
Habitat, Distribution and Biology:
This genus includes two uncommon species of large, poorly known wide-ranging, deepwater sharks in cold-temperate to tropical seas. They have a spotty but virtually circumglobal distribution on continental and insular shelves and slopes from 11 to 900 m depth, on or near the bottom. Bramble sharks reach a maximum size of 3 to 4 m. They feed on a variety of benthic and neritic fishes, including other sharks, ling, hake, flatfishes, lingcod, lizardfishes, rockfishes, topsmelt, herring, and elephantfishes (Callorinchus), as well as crabs, octopuses and squids. They have a moderate-sized mouth and a very large pharynx, and are thought to suck in their prey by suddenly expanding their mouths and pharynxes when in range. They are very sluggish. harmless sharks, never recorded as attacking people. Bramble sharks are ovoviviparous and lack a yolk-sac placenta.
Interest to Fisheries:
Although these sharks attain a large size (3 to 4 m maximum total length), they are uncommon to rare in most areas where they occur and hence are of minimal interest to fisheries. They generally occur as a byeatch of other fisheries, including those for other sharks, and are taken on line gear, deepset gillnets, and more commonly in bottom trawls. They are used for fishmeal and medicinal purposes.
Remarks:
I follow Garrick (1960) in recognizing two species in this genus.