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  3. Angular Roughshark

One of the 26 sharks on WAnimals

Cartilaginous fish · Squaliformes · Oxynotidae

Angular Roughshark

Oxynotus centrina

Endangered

At very high risk of extinction in the wild in the near future.

Spotted something wrong?

The angular roughshark is a deep-water shark of unmistakable appearance: triangular in cross-section, with very rough skin, a flattened head and two tall, pointed dorsal fins like sails. It lives over muddy slope bottoms and feeds on worms and small bottom-dwelling invertebrates.

Size

60 cm – 1.5 m

Diet

Carnivore

Feeds mainly on other animals.

Social structure

Solitary

Lives and hunts alone, joining others only to breed.

Sighting difficulty

Hard

Ocean
24countries10parks

Fun facts

  • It is listed as Endangered globally and Critically Endangered in the Mediterranean: it is taken as bycatch by deep-sea trawling, has no commercial value, and virtually no individual returned to the sea survives.
  • It has an enormous, very oil-rich liver that takes up a good part of the body cavity and allows it to stay suspended without swimming.
  • Its ridges above the eyes widen into swellings covered in denticles, a feature shared by no other shark in its family.
  • Its silhouette is unmistakable: a body triangular in cross-section, a strongly arched back and two tall dorsal fins tipped with a spine, which give it the look of a humpbacked pig.
  • Its liver is enormous in proportion to its body and very rich in oil, giving it near-neutral buoyancy and letting it hold position near the bottom without swimming.
  • It feeds mainly on bottom invertebrates, especially polychaetes and the eggs of other fish.
  • Its decline comes above all from bycatch in deep-water trawling: it is not fished for its value but falls into nets aimed at other species.

Life cycle and biology

Skeleton type
Vertebrate - cartilaginous skeleton (chondrichthyan)
Habitat and environment
Slope bottoms of the eastern Atlantic and the Mediterranean, between 60 and 1,300 m
Size at birth
Less than 25 cm at birth
Sexual maturity
Both sexes at around 50 cm

Sources consulted: https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxynotus_centrina

Where to find it

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The pins mark the parks where its presence is documented.

Where to see it

Parks and dive sites where this species has been documented.

Related species

Other species in the catalogue with the most in common with Angular Roughshark — same habitat, park, country, tags or family.

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How to help

The angular roughshark is classified as endangered. Organisations such as the IUCN, WWF and the Wildlife Conservation Society work specifically on its conservation and that of its habitat; looking into their programmes is a good starting point if you want to get involved.

It's documented in 7 protected areas — one reason why protecting these places matters for its conservation.

Keep exploring

Based on what we already know about angular roughshark.

Comments

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See full glossary
This page in other languages: Español · Deutsch · Français · Português · Italiano
See its range on the interactive map→
CalanquesFrance
Port-CrosFrance
Cabrera ArchipelagoSpain
Cíes IslandsSpain
Cabo de Gata-NíjarSpain
AsinaraItaly
La MaddalenaItaly
ArrábidaPortugal
MadeiraPortugal
Sudoeste Alentejano e Costa VicentinaPortugal
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Gulper Shark

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CountriesPortugal
ParksCalanquesFrance
TagsCarnivore
Carnivore
Solitary
Endangered
Fish
Ocean

Europe12

Africa8

Asia4

Portugal
Spain
France
Italy
Albania
Algeria
Albania
Croatia
Cyprus
France
Greece
Italy
Malta
Monaco
Montenegro
Portugal
Slovenia
Spain
Algeria
Egypt
Libya
Mauritania
Morocco
Senegal
South Africa
Tunisia
Israel
Lebanon
Syria
Türkiye