Species: Squaliolus laticaudus, Big-eye Dwarf Shark, Spined Pigmy Shark

Squaliolus laticaudus Smith & Radcliffe, 1912

Spined Pigmy Shark, Big-eye Dwarf Shark

Head cylindrical, snout very long (~1/2 head), bulbously conical, slightly pointed; anterior nasal flaps very short, not expanded into barbels; eye large (61-82% of snout before eye), upper eyelid broadly arched; gill openings very small, wide; lips thin, top lip paired lateral papillae weak or absent; teeth very different in upper and lower jaws; top teeth small, with a single narrow, acute, erect cusp, lowers much larger, bladelike, with a high, moderately broad, nearly erect cusp and blade at side, 21-23 above, 16-21 below; flank denticles without rear points, with flat, depressed crowns; 1st dorsal fin with a spine (may be covered with skin), origin over inner margin or free rear tip of pectoral fin; 2nd dorsal without a spine, much larger than 1st dorsal, base about twice as long as 1st base, origin over front ½ of pelvic base; pectoral fins with short, narrowly rounded free rear tips and inner margins; cloaca not expanded as a luminous gland; no precaudal pits or midventral keels, but with low lateral keels on caudal peduncle; tail fin almost symmetrical, paddle–shaped, with a short upper and long lower lobe and a strong subterminal notch; lower body surface covered with light organs.

Blackish to blackish–brown with conspicuously light–margined fins.

Reaches 28 cm

Epipelagic, vertical migrations, deeper during day.

Depth range 60 - 1200 m over deep water.

Atlantic & Indo-west Pacific; Canada to Suriname.