The shortspine spurdog shark is a fairly slender dogfish. Dorsal fins with dusky tips and area of posterior caudal notch dusky. Pectoral, pelvic, and caudal fins with white posterior margins. There head is broad, snout relatively long and broad, large medial barbel on anterior nasal flaps. Pectoral fins with shallowly concave posterior margins and narrowly rounded rear tips. First dorsal fin relatively high, origin over or just behind pectoral bases; first dorsal spine fairly stout and short ( much less than fin base ), origin over pectoral inner margins.

SIZE

Males mature at (18.5 to 33.4 ) inches, females mature at ( 19.6 to 38.3 ) and can reach to a maximum length of 49.2 inches. Pups are born at ( 8.2 to 11.8 inches ).

TEETH

They have oblique-cusped cutting teeth in both jaws.

COLOR

The dorsal part of the body is gray or gray-brown, and the ventral surface paler , no white spots on the side of the body. The upper portion of the dorsal fin is darker. The eyes are green.

FEEDING HABITS

These are powerful predators on bony fishes and invertebrates.

BEHAVIOUR

Often in large aggregations or schools. Some sexual segregation by depth or latitude.

HABITAT

Apparently extensive, patchy, but may be a species complex. Found on continental and insular shelves and upper slopes, submarine ridges and seamounts on or near bottom, in depths from (13 to 3,129.9 feet ).

REPRODUCTION

Ovoviviparous, giving birth to 2 to 15 pups per litter ( increasing with size of mother, varying regionally ) after two year gestation.

SHARK ATTACKS

No data found

POPULATION REPORT

Extremely vulnerable to rapid depletion by fisheries, one population Endangered.