Species: Centroscyllium fabricii, Black dogfish shark

Centroscyllium fabricii (Reinhardt, 1825)

Black dogfish shark

Body moderately stout and compressed; abdomen long, distance between pectoral and pelvic bases >> head; tail base short (distance from 2nd dorsal origin to upper tail fin origin </= distance from eye to 3rd gill slit); head broad and flattened; snout moderately rounded or slightly pointed, flattened and truncated, short; mouth under snout, not extending before eye, ending far behind nostrils, narrowly curved and long; teeth similar in upper and lower jaws, small, with narrow pointed cusps and 1-2 pairs of prominent secondary cusps; dorsal fins high and short, first dorsal low, its base << interdorsal space, its origin well behind pectoral–fin free rear tips; second dorsal fin usually larger than first; dorsal–fin spines long, usually stout, and curved, second dorsal–fin spine much larger than spine of the first and with its tip extending just below or opposite apex of second dorsal fin; pectorals with rear tips ending well before origin of 1st dorsal spine; anal fin absent; skin firm; flank denticles high, conical, hooked, sharp, with stellate bases, denticles numerous and dense on body; body with photophores more dense on the ventral surface than the dorsal surface or absent from the dorsal surface.

Color: uniform blackish brown; no black spots of photophores on body; no white on fins.

Reaches 107 cm.

Benthopelagic.

Depth range 180-2250 m

Both sides of the Atlanic; Canada to the northern Gulf of Mexico, Argentina