The Antilles catshark (''Galeus antillensis'') is a common but little-known

species A species () is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. It is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), ...

of deepwater catshark, belonging 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 ...

Pentanchidae Pentanchidae, the deepwater catsharks, is a family of sharks belonging to the order Carcharhiniformes Carcharhiniformes ( from Classical Greek ' (karcharos) 'sharp/jagged' and ' (rhinos) 'nose', plus Latin ''forme'' 'shape'), commonly known a ...

. It is found on or near the bottom at a depth of off

Florida Florida ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders the Gulf of Mexico to the west, Alabama to the northwest, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the north, the Atlantic ...

and the

West Indies The West Indies is an island subregion of the Americas, surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, which comprises 13 independent island country, island countries and 19 dependent territory, dependencies in thr ...

from

Jamaica Jamaica is an island country in the Caribbean Sea and the West Indies. At , it is the third-largest island—after Cuba and Hispaniola—of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean. Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, west of Hispaniola (the is ...

Martinique Martinique ( ; or ; Kalinago language, Kalinago: or ) is an island in the Lesser Antilles of the West Indies, in the eastern Caribbean Sea. It was previously known as Iguanacaera which translates to iguana island in Carib language, Kariʼn ...

. It was once regarded as a

subspecies In Taxonomy (biology), biological classification, subspecies (: subspecies) is a rank below species, used for populations that live in different areas and vary in size, shape, or other physical characteristics (Morphology (biology), morpholog ...

of the similar roughtail catshark (''G. arae''), along with the longfin sawtail catshark (''G. cadenati''). Growing to long, the Antilles catshark is a slender species with a marbled color pattern of dark saddles and blotches, as well as a crest of enlarge

dermal denticle A fish scale is a small rigid plate that grows out of the skin of a fish. The skin of most jawed fishes is covered with these protective scale (zoology), scales, which can also provide effective Underwater camouflage, camouflage through the us ...

s along the front part of its dorsal

caudal fin Fins are moving appendages protruding from the body of fish that interact with water to generate thrust and help the fish swim. Apart from the tail or caudal fin, fish fins have no direct connection with the back bone and are supported only ...

margin. It feeds on

shrimp A shrimp (: shrimp (American English, US) or shrimps (British English, UK)) is a crustacean with an elongated body and a primarily Aquatic locomotion, swimming mode of locomotion – typically Decapods belonging to the Caridea or Dendrobranchi ...

and may have

schooling A school is the educational institution (and, in the case of in-person learning, the building) designed to provide learning environments for the teaching of students, usually under the direction of teachers. Most countries have systems of fo ...

habits. 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 ...

Taxonomy

Shark expert

Stewart Springer Stewart Springer (5 June 190623 August 1991) was an American ichthyologist and herpetologist. He was an expert on shark behavior, classification (taxonomy), and population distribution. More than 35 species of sharks, skates, rays, and other cr ...

first described the Antilles catshark as an island

of ''G. arae'' in a 1979

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA ) is an American scientific and regulatory agency charged with Weather forecasting, forecasting weather, monitoring oceanic and atmospheric conditions, Hydrography, charting the seas, ...

(NOAA) Technical Report. The

type specimen In biology, a type is a particular wikt:en:specimen, specimen (or in some cases a group of specimens) of an organism to which the scientific name of that organism is formally associated. In other words, a type is an example that serves to ancho ...

was collected off

Saint Kitts Saint Kitts, officially Saint Christopher, is an island in the West Indies. The west side of the island borders the Caribbean Sea, and the eastern coast faces the Atlantic Ocean. Saint Kitts and the neighbouring island of Nevis constitute one ...

in the

Leeward Islands The Leeward Islands () are a group of islands situated where the northeastern Caribbean Sea meets the western Atlantic Ocean. Starting with the Virgin Islands east of Puerto Rico, they extend southeast to Guadeloupe and its dependencies. In Engl ...

.Springer, S. (April 1979). ''A revision of the catsharks, family Scyliorhinidae''. NOAA Technical Report NMFS Circular No. 422: 1–15 In 1998 and 2000, Hera Konstantinou and colleagues published revisions of the ''G. arae''

species complex In biology, a species complex is a group of closely related organisms that are so similar in appearance and other features that the boundaries between them are often unclear. The taxa in the complex may be able to hybridize readily with each oth ...

, wherein they elevated the subspecies ''G. a. antillensis'' and ''G. a. cadenati'' to full species, and described what had been considered the striped

color morph Color (or colour in Commonwealth English; see spelling differences) is the visual perception based on the electromagnetic spectrum. Though color is not an inherent property of matter, color perception is related to an object's light absor ...

of ''G. a. antillensis'' as a new species, '' G. springeri''. The taxonomic distinction between this species and the recently described '' G. mincaronei'' of southern

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

warrants further investigation.

Distribution and habitat

The Antilles catshark has been reported from the

Straits of Florida The Straits of Florida, Florida Straits, or Florida Strait () is a strait located south-southeast of the North American mainland, generally accepted to be between the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean, and between the Florida Keys (U.S.) an ...

, as well as from the waters around

Hispaniola Hispaniola (, also ) is an island between Geography of Cuba, Cuba and Geography of Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico in the Greater Antilles of the Caribbean. Hispaniola is the most populous island in the West Indies, and the second-largest by List of C ...

Puerto Rico ; abbreviated PR), officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, is a Government of Puerto Rico, self-governing Caribbean Geography of Puerto Rico, archipelago and island organized as an Territories of the United States, unincorporated territo ...

, the Leeward Islands, and

. Its range may be wider than is known and overlaps that of ''G. springeri'', but not ''G. arae'' or ''G. cadenati''. This abundant,

demersal The demersal zone is the part of the sea or ocean (or deep lake) consisting of the part of the water column near to (and significantly affected by) the seabed and the benthos. The demersal zone is just above the benthic zone and forms a layer o ...

species inhabits continental and insular slopes, at a depth of .

Description

The Antilles catshark grows larger than ''G. arae'' and ''G. cadenati'', reaching a maximum known length of . Slim in build, it has a somewhat flattened head with a long, pointed snout. The horizontally oval eyes are equipped with rudimentary

nictitating membrane The nictitating membrane (from Latin '' nictare'', to blink) is a transparent or translucent third eyelid present in some animals that can be drawn across the eye from the medial canthus to protect and moisten it while maintaining vision. Most ...

s (protective third eyelids), and are followed by tiny spiracles. There are no prominent ridges beneath the eyes. The nostrils are divided by triangular flaps of skin on their anterior rims. The mouth is short, wide, and curved, and bears rather long furrows at the corners. The teeth number around 56 upper and 52 lower rows; each tooth has a long central cusp flanked by one or two smaller cusplets on either side. There are five pairs of

gill slit Gill slits are individual openings to gills, i.e., multiple gill arches, which lack a single outer cover. Such gills are characteristic of cartilaginous fish such as sharks and rays, as well as deep-branching vertebrates such as lampreys. In c ...

s. The apexes of two

dorsal fin A dorsal fin is a fin on the back of most marine and freshwater vertebrates. Dorsal fins have evolved independently several times through convergent evolution adapting to marine environments, so the fins are not all homologous. They are found ...

s are blunt, with the first originating behind the midpoint of the

pelvic fin Pelvic fins or ventral fins are paired fins located on the ventral (belly) surface of fish, and are the lower of the only two sets of paired fins (the other being the laterally positioned pectoral fins). The pelvic fins are homologous to the hi ...

bases. The second dorsal fin is almost as large as the first, and originates behind the midpoint of the

anal fin Fins are moving appendages protruding from the body of fish that interact with water to generate thrust and help the fish swim. Apart from the tail or caudal fin, fish fins have no direct connection with the back bone and are supported o ...

base. The

pectoral fin Fins are moving appendages protruding from the body of fish that interact with water to generate thrust and help the fish aquatic locomotion, swim. Apart from the tail or caudal fin, fish fins have no direct connection with the vertebral column ...

s are rather large and broad, with rounded corners. The pelvic and anal fins are low and angular. The anal fin base measures roughly 8–14% of the total length, about comparable to the space between the dorsal fins. The

has a small lower lobe and a ventral notch near the tip of the upper lobe. The body is covered by tiny, overlapping

s; each has a leaf-shaped crown bearing a horizontal ridge and three marginal teeth. There is a prominent, saw-toothed crest formed from enlarged denticles along the anterior portion of the dorsal caudal fin edge. This species has a marbled color pattern consisting of usually fewer than 11 dark brown saddles and/or blotches along the back and tail, on a dusky background; the blotches can vary from faint to well-defined by a pale outline. Some individuals also have a distinctive dark marking with three backward-pointing prongs atop the head. The underside is plain and whitish. The inside of the mouth is dark.

Biology and ecology

The Antilles catshark may form large schools, and feeds mainly on

. It is

; adult females have a single functional

ovary The ovary () is a gonad in the female reproductive system that produces ova; when released, an ovum travels through the fallopian tube/ oviduct into the uterus. There is an ovary on the left and the right side of the body. The ovaries are end ...

, on the right, and two functional

oviduct The oviduct in vertebrates is the passageway from an ovary. In human females, this is more usually known as the fallopian tube. The eggs travel along the oviduct. These eggs will either be fertilized by spermatozoa to become a zygote, or will dege ...

s. A single egg matures inside each oviduct at a time. The egg is contained within a flask-shaped capsule measuring around long, across the top, and across the bottom; there are coiled tendrils at the upper two corners. Males and females attain

sexual maturity Sexual maturity is the capability of an organism to reproduce. In humans, it is related to both puberty and adulthood. ''Puberty'' is the biological process of sexual maturation, while ''adulthood'', the condition of being socially recognized ...

at approximately and long respectively.

Human interactions

The

International Union for Conservation of Nature The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natural resources. Founded in 1948, IUCN has become the global authority on the stat ...

(IUCN) has listed the Antilles catshark under least concern. It is perhaps too small to be captured by some types of fishing gear, though its limited distribution means any increased fishing within its

habitat In ecology, habitat refers to the array of resources, biotic factors that are present in an area, such as to support the survival and reproduction of a particular species. A species' habitat can be seen as the physical manifestation of its ...

may merit concern.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q1950352 Antilles catshark Fish of the Caribbean Fish of the Dominican Republic Taxa named by Stewart Springer Antilles catshark