Species: Etmopterus virens, Green Lantern Shark

Etmopterus virens Bigelow, Schroeder & Springer, 1953

Green Lantern Shark

Body moderately slender; head and snout flattened, at level of eyes head is wider than deep; snout moderately short, its underside WITHOUT denticles; no nictitating eyelids; spiracle large, behind eye; mouth short, at acute angle; upper teeth with a narrow central point plus 2 smaller points on each side, 29-34 rows, lower teeth compressed and blade-like, with small, oblique tips, 24-32 rows; five gill slits, all before pectoral base, very short; two dorsal fins, second >2X area of first, both with long thick grooved spines; first dorsal with origin over inner pectoral margin, center of first dorsal much closer to pectoral fin axil than to origin of the pelvics; space between dorsal fins less than distance from snout to pectoral fin origin; pectoral fin rounded; no anal fin; fins without hairy borders; no ridges between pectoral and pelvic fins, no precaudal pits, no keel on tail base; tail long, narrow; tail fin strongly asymmetrical, notch at top; denticles on sides of body with short, stout, hooked, conical points, irregularly & widely spaced, not in rows.

Dark brown to grey-black above; under snout and abdomen black; an elongate narrow dark mark above and behind pelvic, others on underside of tail, and base and axis of tail fin; a pale yellow spot between eyes.

Size: 26 cm.

Habitat: Outer continental shelf and upper slopes.

Depth: 100-915 m

The SE USA, through the Gulf of Mexico to the southern Caribbean.