Author: Cadenat and Maul, 1966
Field Marks:
At least in the holotype, greatly elongated medial projections on gill septa, possibly less developed in other specimens.
Diagnostic Features:
Body relatively slender, trunk slightly tapering toward head. Snout moderately long, broad, and bell-shaped, preoral snout about 8% of total length; gill slits short, considerably less than eye length; gill septa without pleats but moderately incised and with strongly projecting medial lobes; eyes rather small in adults, about 3% of total length; nostrils broad, their width about 1.1 times the internarial space; incurrent and excurrent apertures very large and oval, anterior nasal flaps long and angular; mouth long, large, and broadly arched, with dental bands slightly expanded and with lower ones falling well behind uppers; mouth and labial furrows extending slightly in front of eyes; labial folds not enlarged, with lower diagonal to body axis. Interdorsal space about twice length of first dorsal base, about equal to preorbital snout; first dorsal fin about half area of second, base of first about 3/4 of second; origin of first dorsal opposite last fourth of pelvic bases; second dorsal insertion slightly in front of anal insertion: Dectoral fins rather small. anterior margins about 12% of total length; inner margins long, nearly length of pectoral bases; interspace between pectoral and pelvic bases moderately long, about equal to preorbital length and about 18% of total length in adult holotype; pelvic fins low and angular; anal fin fairly short, high, and angular, slightly more than three times as long as high, its base slightly greater than prespiracular space and 15% of total length in adults; caudal fin fairly- short and broad, apparently without a dorsal crest of enlarged denticles. Lateral trunk denticles of body with crowns fairly flat and closely imbricated, surface fairly smooth and without a feltlike or fuzzy texture. Colour blackish, without conspicuous markings. Adults moderately large, adult female 67 cm.
Geographical Distribution:
Eastern North Atlantic, Madeira; possibly also from Iceland and Bill Bailey, Lousy and Great Sole Banks, eastern North Atlantic slope.
Habitat and Biology:
Continental slopes of eastern North Atlantic on or near bottom at depths from 700 to 1500 m. Oviparous, apparently with a single egg per uterus.
Size:
Maximum at least 68.1 cm for adult males and 66.8 cm for adult females.
Interest to Fisheries:
None.
Remarks:
The account of this species follows Cadenat and Maul (1966). Seven specimens of an Apristurus in the collections of the Institut fur Seefischerei, Hamburg, were examined by the writer in 1979 and found to be very similar to the type of A. maderensis as described by Cadenat and Maul. These specimens (labelled as LJVC "Apristurus F") were collected off Iceland and the Bill Bailey, Lousy and Great Sole Banks and are tentatively placed in A. maderensis.
Type material:
Holotype: Museau Municipal do Funchal, MMF 18750, 668 mm adult female. Type Locality: Camara de Lobos, Madeira, eastern Atlantic, depth from 600 to 1000 m.