As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
Call: Angular roughshark(Oxynotus centrina
Where it lives: In the eastern Atlantic ocean from Norway to South Africa, and the Mediterranean sea
What it consumes: Fish, shellfishes, molluscs, marine worms and shark eggs
Why it’s amazing: When we consider sharks, we tend to picture big, muscular predators like fantastic whites or hammerheads. For the pig-like angular roughshark, this is not the case. These unusual sharks have flat heads, wide-set eyes and pink snouts.
“It is commonly called a ‘pig fish’ because when it comes out of the water it emits a kind of grunt,” Yuri Tiberto of the Elba Aquarium in Italy, informed Toscana Media News in 2021, after a dead person was pulled from the water in Elba, an Italian island near Tuscany, and published to Facebook by the tourist site Isola d’Elba App
Angular roughsharks usually grow around 3.3 feet (1 meters) long and have thick, gray-brown bodies with 2 big dorsal fins that look like sails. They have a triangular profile from the front.
Like all sharks, their skin is covered in dermal denticles– flat, V-shaped tooth-like structures that include pulp, dentine and enamel
Get the world’s most remarkable discoveries provided directly to your inbox.
While all sharks have denticles, roughshark denticles are especially big and noticable, providing a fuzzy look. Researchers do not understand precisely why this is, however it might be to assist secure the animal from bigger predators.
Integrated with its furry-looking face, the angular roughshark likewise has a brief, blunt snout with enormous nostrils, contributing to their pig-like look.
Due to the fact that of their uncommon bodies, angular roughsharks frequently get captured in webs as bycatch by fishers. (Image credit: Isola d’Elba App)
These weird functions connect to their way of lives; they invest the majority of their time swimming simply above the seafloor searching for food. They tend to move gradually, vacuuming up their victim.
They have one set of sharp, blade-like lower teeth to slice through flesh, in addition to cone-shaped upper teeth which assist to spear slippery victim.
Current research study recommends angular roughsharks likewise feed upon the eggs of other sharksAs finding shark embryos in the stomachs of wild roughsharks, in 2015 researchers reported a captive angular roughshark that fed solely on the eggs of elasmobranches
These sharks have little business worth, their big dorsal fins and spinal columns make them prone to being captured in internet as bycatch by fishers.They are likewise noted as threatened on the International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List of Threatened Species
Learn more
As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
