Author: (Garrick, 1954)
Field Marks:
A moderately small shark with a very long and narrow snout, bell-shaped in dorsoventral view and laterally wedge-shaped, an anal fin and two equal-sized, spineless dorsal fins, the first over abdomen slightly closer to pectoral fins than to pelvics, nictitating eyelids, a large, triangular mouth with short labial furrows and small, numerous cuspidate teeth, the posteriors rather comblike, short anterior nasal flaps that do not reach mouth, a slender body and tail, and no colour pattern.
Diagnostic Features:
Body slender. Head and snout bell-shaped in dorsoventral view; preoral snout length about equal to mouth width; anterior nasal flaps small, ending well in front of mouth; internarial space 1.8 to 1.9 times the nostril width; inside of mouth and edges of gill bars without papillae. First dorsal origin slightly anterior to or over free rear tips of pectorals, base closer to pectoral bases than pelvic bases; anal origin posterior to second dorsal origin, caudal fin broad, not tapelike, and short, dorsal margin about 19 to 21% of total length. No colour pattern, brownish-grey above, light below.
Geographical Distribution:
Apparently confined to the western South Pacific, off New Zealand.
Habitat and Biology:
A little-known, uncommon bottomdwelling shark of the outermost continental shelf and upper slope of New Zealand temperate waters; found at depths of 200 to 439 m. Ovoviviparous, size of litters not recorded. Food habits not known, presumably eats small fishes and invertebrates.
Size:
Maximum size about 1 m; an adult female is 101 cm; mature males from 93 to 96 cm.
Interest to Fisheries:
None at present as far as is known, although this shark is taken in small numbers by bottom trawlers fishing in deep water.
Type material:
Holotype: National Museum of New Zealand (formerly Dominion Museum), DM (or NMNZ) 1509s 932 mm adult male. Type Locality: Cape Palliser, east coast of North Island, New Zealand, 220 m depth.