Species: Apristurus riveri, Broadgill Cat Shark

Apristurus riveri Bigelow & Schroder, 1944

Broadgill Cat Shark

Body soft and flabby, with thin skin, slender; head broad, flattened, pointed and wedge shaped in side view; snout long, narrow, bell shaped, 7-10% TL, longer than mouth width; pore band on underside of center of snout with only 4 pore rows at level of rear end of nostrils (vs 8+ in other species); skull without crests above eyes; mouth very long, reaches well past eyes, arched; males with much longer and wider mouths; teeth dimorphic: conical in males, multipointed in females; lip furrows very long, upper furrows reach level of front of jaws, lower furrows ~as long as uppers; nostrils small; eyes relatively small (orbit length ~3.3-3.5% TL, high on sides of head, with a crest below them; 5 gill slits, on sides of head, enlarged, widest nearly = eye; 2 dorsal fins at rear of body, without spines; 1st dorsal much smaller than second, origin over rear 1/2 of base of pelvics; origin of 2nd dorsal over ~center of anal base; space between dorsals 7-9% TL, 2X 1st dorsal base; distance between pectoral and pelvic bases 9-12% TL; anal fin moderately long, base 13-15% TL, fin fairly high and angular, separated from tail fin by a small notch; tail fin elongate, relatively low and narrow, top lobe with a subterminal notch, lower lobe weakly developed, without crest of denticles along top margin.

Uniform dark brown.

Reaches 46 cm

Trawled from soft bottoms

Depth range 700-1803 m

The Gulf of Mexico to the southern Caribbean.