Centrophorus tessellatus

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 and broad snout, fairly short first dorsal fin and high second dorsal, blocklike very, sessilecrowned, wide-spaced, acuspidate lateral denticles, and rear tips of pectoral fins narrowly angular and strongly extended.

Diagnostic Features:
Snout moderately long, broadly 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 moderately high and short, second dorsal moderately large, nearly as high as first, with base about 3/4 length of first dorsal base, and spine origin over free rear tips of pelvic fins; distance from first dorsal insertion to origin of second dorsal spine slightly less than distance from tip of snout to pectoral origins in adults and subadults; free rear tips of pectoral fins formed into narrow, angular and elongated lores that reach well beyond the level of first dorsal spine, inner margins shorter than distance from second dorsal spine to caudal origin; caudal fin with a shallowly notched posterior margin in adults and subadults. Lateral trunk denticles not over lapping each other, blocklike, with crowns sessile on bases and without pedicels, crowns broad and transversely rhomboidal in adults, without cusps on their posterior edges.

Geographical Distribution:
Western North Pacific: Southeastern Honshu, Japan. Central Pacific: Hawaiian Islands.

Habitat and Biology:
A little-known gulper shark of the insular slopes near or on the bottom at 260 to 728 m depth.

Size:
Maximum total length 89 cm (holotype).

Interest to Fisheries:
Apparently rare and of no importance to fisheries, unlike some other member of the genus Centrophorus.

Type material:
Holotype: Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard MCZ 1031, 887 mm adult male. Type Locality: Japan, southeastern Honshu, 35°N, 30'E, 728 m.

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