#squalus

Wanted to ask if you had anything for spiny dogfish. I got to dissect one for a zoology class once and I thought it was pretty neat.

Spiny Dogfish (Squalus acanthias), family Squalidae, order Squaliformes, found in coastal areas around the world, especially in temperate and subtropical regions

AKA Spurdog, Mud Shark, or Piked Dogfish

photograph by Doug Costa, NOAA/SBNMS 

Dogfish - Squalus suckleyi

Despite their name, they are actually sharks and they are not related to dogs.

A new deep-water dogfish shark has been discovered!!! named Squalus hawaiiensis, also known as the Hawaiian spurdog, this dogfish was believe to be pretty similar to shortspine spurdog (S. mitsukurii) but subsequent analysis discovered a difference in dorsal fin size and interdorsal length, in addition to genetic differences. The Hawaiian spurdong is apparently endemic to the Hawaiian Archipelago.

Dogfish sharks are biologically difficult to physically tell apart, since they are adapted to deep-sea environment, they share physical adaptation to these ecosystems. This can lead to confusion at the time of classifying them.

Meet the gulf dogfish (Squalus clarkae), a new species of deep sea shark, a member in the family Squalidae. Previously, this species was considered a part of the Squalus mitsukurii species complex, a group of closely related but distinct species. However, using new genetic testing and morphology, researchers classified the gulf dogfish as a new species.

- An adult Gulf dogfish found in Belize. credit: MarAlliance.

From the Gulf of Mexico, this species is named in honor of Dr. Eugenie Clark, a pioneer in the field of marine science broadly, and elasmobranch biology in the Gulf of Mexico specifically 

Adult female Gulf Dogfish/Genie’s Dogfish Squalus clarkae 

Reference: Ppfleger et al., 2018. Squalus clarkae sp. nov., a new dogfish shark from the Northwest Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico, with comments on the Squalus mitsukurii species complex. Zootaxa.