Centrophorus acus

Author: Garman, 1906

Field Marks:
No anal fin, two dorsal fins with large spines, bladelike unicuspidate teeth in upper and lower jaws, with lowers much larger than uppers, a moderately long snout, leafshaped tricuspidate, semi-imbricated lateral denticles, and rear tips of pectoral fins narrowly angular and strongly extended.

Diagnostic Features:
Snout moderately long, narrowly parabolic, preoral snout somewhat greater than mouth width but shorter than distance from mouth to pectoral origins; upper anterolateral teeth with erect to semioblique cusps. First dorsal fin relatively low and long; second dorsal moderately large, as high as first, with base about 3/4 length of first dorsal base, and spine origin over inner margins of pelvic fins; distance from first dorsal insertion to origin of second dorsal spine about as long as tip of snout to pectoral midbases in adults; free rear tips of pectoral fins formed into a narrow, angular but only moderately elongated lobe that reaches the level of first dorsal spine, inner margins slightly shorter than distance from second dorsal spine to caudal origin. Caudal fin with shallowly concave or weakly notched postventral margin in adults. Lateral trunk denticles partly overlapping each other, with thick pedicels elevating flat, leaflike crowns, a strong main cusp and a pair of lateral cusps on their posterior edges in adults.

Geographical Distribution:
Western North Pacific: Japan (southeastern Honshu). Western North Atlantic: Gulf of Mexico.

Habitat and Biology:
A little-known deepwater dogfish of the western Pacific and western North Atlantic, probably found below 200 m depth.

Size:
Mature males to at least 81 cm (holotype).

Interest to Fisheries: None?

Type material:
Holotype: Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard, MCZ 1049. Type Locality: Japan.

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