Species: Etmopterus robinsi, West Indian Lantern Shark

Etmopterus robinsi Schofield & Burgess, 1997

West Indian Lantern Shark

Body moderately stout; head and snout flat, long, broad, depth at front of eye 2/3 width; no nictitating eyelids; spiracle large, behind eye; mouth short, at acute angle; upper teeth with a large central point plus 2 smaller points on each side; lower teeth compressed and blade-like, with small, oblique tips; five gill slits, all before pectoral base, very short; two dorsal fins, second much higher but <2X area of 1st, both with long thick grooved spines, 2nd spine larger than 1st; first dorsal with origin just behind pressed-down pectoral tip, fin much nearer pectoral fin axil than origin of pelvics; pectoral fin triangular; no anal fin; no ridges between pectoral and pelvic fins, no precaudal pits, no keel on tail base; tail fin strongly asymmetrical, notch at top, relatively short (top margin length ~snout tip to pectoral origin); fins without rear fringes; denticles needle like, densely and randomly arranged, cover head and body; flank denticles with slender, hooked points, wide spaced, not in longitudinal rows.

Head and body grey to dark brown above, conspicuously dark below; elongate black mark above and behind pelvics subdivided.

Size: 34 cm.

Habitat: Upper continental slope

Depth: 412-787 m.

SE USA to the central Caribbean.