Family | Scientific Name | Author | Year | Common Name |
Hexacanthidae | Heptranchias perlo | (Bonnaterre) | 1788 | Sharpnose Sevengill Shark |
Family Hexacanthidae — Small to large sharks with slender to stout bodies. Head with 6 or 7 pairs of long gill slits, the last in front of pectoral-fin origins, the first pair not connected across throat. No nictitating lower eyelids. Snout short, acutely to bluntly pointed; nostrils without barbels or nasoral grooves. Mouth very long and extending far behind the eyes. Teeth of upper and lower jaws unlike at sides of mouth, uppers small, narrow, with a main cusp and often smaller cusplets, lowers very large, broad, compressed, and saw-like, with a series of cusps or large cusplets. Short dermal gill rakers present on inner gill slits; spiracles present, small. A single dorsal fin, posterior to pelvic fins.
Heptranchias perlo
Unique Characters: Seven gill slits.
Similar Species: Bluntnose Sixgill Shark Hexanchus griseus. Six gill slits.
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