The narrowtail catshark (''Schroederichthys maculatus'') is a catshark 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 ...

Scyliorhinidae Scyliorhinidae is a Family (biology), family of sharks, one of a few families whose members share the common name catsharks, belonging to the Order (biology), order Carcharhiniformes, the ground sharks. Although they are generally known as cats ...

, found off the coasts of

Honduras Honduras, officially the Republic of Honduras, is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the west by Guatemala, to the southwest by El Salvador, to the southeast by Nicaragua, to the south by the Pacific Ocean at the Gulf of Fonseca, ...

and

Nicaragua Nicaragua, officially the Republic of Nicaragua, is the geographically largest Sovereign state, country in Central America, comprising . With a population of 7,142,529 as of 2024, it is the third-most populous country in Central America aft ...

, 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 18° N and 10° N, at depths between . It can grow up to a length of . The reproduction of this catshark 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 ...

Description

The narrowtail catshark is very elongated both as an adult and as a juvenile, growing to a length of about . The dorsal surface and flanks are light grey or tan, spotted with white. Juveniles have six to nine light brown saddle-shaped markings dorsally, but these fade in adulthood. The underparts are pale.

Distribution

The narrowtail catshark is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found only in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also foun ...

to the Caribbean Sea where it is found off the coasts of Honduras, Nicaragua and Colombia, and in the area of sea between Honduras and Jamaica. It occupies the edge of the continental shelf and the upper parts of the slope, its depth range being between about . It prefers to be above seabeds composed of fine calcareous materials.

Ecology

The narrowtail catshark is a

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, cruising along close to the seabed and feeding mainly on small fish and

cephalopod A cephalopod is any member of the molluscan Taxonomic rank, class Cephalopoda (Greek language, Greek plural , ; "head-feet") such as a squid, octopus, cuttlefish, or nautilus. These exclusively marine animals are characterized by bilateral symm ...

s. One specimen was found to have algae in its stomach. This catshark is

, the female probably producing one egg in each oviduct, and the developing embryos depending on the egg yolk for nourishment. Because this species retains the same body proportions at all ages while other members of the genus do not, it has been suggested that it is a pedomorphic dwarf, retaining its juvenile form and maturing at a much smaller size than other members of the genus.

Status

Very little is known about this shark and its ecology. It has a restricted range but is subject to little fishing pressure because there are no commercial trawl fisheries operating in the Caribbean Sea at the depths at which this fish lives. In the absence of known threats, the population is presumed to be stable, and 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 ...

has assessed its conservation status as being of "

least concern A least-concern species is a species that has been evaluated and categorized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as not being a focus of wildlife conservation because the specific species is still plentiful in the wil ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:catshark, narrowtail narrowtail catshark Fish of Honduras Marine fish of Nicaragua narrowtail catshark