The rusty carpetshark (''Parascyllium ferrugineum'') is a carpetshark of the

family Family (from ) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). It forms the basis for social order. Ideally, families offer predictabili ...

Parascylliidae Parascylliidae, or the collared carpet sharks, is a family of sharks in the order Orectolobiformes, which are only found in shallow waters of the western Pacific. The family Parascylliidae contains two genera, '' Cirrhoscyllium'' and '' Parascyl ...

found off southern

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

between

latitude In geography, latitude is a geographic coordinate system, geographic coordinate that specifies the north-south position of a point on the surface of the Earth or another celestial body. Latitude is given as an angle that ranges from −90° at t ...

s 31°S and 41°S near the ocean floor on the

continental shelf A continental shelf is a portion of a continent that is submerged under an area of relatively shallow water, known as a shelf sea. Much of these shelves were exposed by drops in sea level during glacial periods. The shelf surrounding an islan ...

. It inhabits rocky reefs and seagrass beds in depth by night, hiding in caves by day. Its length is up to TL and it feeds on

crustaceans Crustaceans (from Latin meaning: "those with shells" or "crusted ones") are invertebrate animals that constitute one group of Arthropod, arthropods that are traditionally a part of the subphylum Crustacea (), a large, diverse group of mainly aquat ...

and

molluscs Mollusca is a phylum of protostome, protostomic invertebrate animals, whose members are known as molluscs or mollusks (). Around 76,000 extant taxon, extant species of molluscs are recognized, making it the second-largest animal phylum ...

. Reproduction is

oviparous Oviparous animals are animals that reproduce by depositing fertilized zygotes outside the body (i.e., by laying or spawning) in metabolically independent incubation organs known as eggs, which nurture the embryo into moving offsprings kno ...

, with pups being born at in length.

References

* Compagno, Dando, & Fowler, ''Sharks of the World'', Princeton University Press, New Jersey 2005

External links

* * rusty carpetshark Marine fish of Southern Australia rusty carpetshark {{Shark-stub