Brown lanternshark
| Brown lanternshark | |
|---|---|
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Chondrichthyes |
| Subclass: | Elasmobranchii |
| Order: | Squaliformes |
| Family: | Etmopteridae |
| Genus: | Etmopterus |
| Species: | E. unicolor |
| Binomial name | |
|
Etmopterus unicolor (Engelhardt, 1912) |
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| Range of the brown lanternshark | |
| Synonyms | |
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Spinax unicolor Engelhardt, 1912 |
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Spinax unicolor Engelhardt, 1912
Etmopterus tasmaniensis Myagkov & Pavlov, 1986 Etmopterus compagnoi Fricke & Koch, 1990
The brown lanternshark or bristled lanternshark (Etmopterus unicolor) is a little-known species of deep-sea dogfish shark in the family Etmopteridae. It is found off Japan and New Zealand, and possibly also South Africa and Australia, typically deeper than 300 m (980 ft). This species can be distinguished from other lanternsharks by its coloration, which is a uniform dark gray or brown without the ventral surface being much darker and clearly delineated from the rest of the body. The brown lanternshark feeds on small bony fishes, cephalopods, and crustaceans. Reproduction is ovoviviparous, with females giving birth to 9–18 young. An unusually high proportion of individuals in Suruga Bay are hermaphrodites, with both male and female characteristics.
The brown lanternshark was first described by Robert Engelhardt as Spinax unicolor in 1912, in the scientific journal Zoologischer Anzeiger. The type specimen was a 55-cm-long female from Sagami Bay, Japan. In 1965, Tokiharu Abe redescribed this species and moved it to the genus Etmopterus. The Australian Etmopterus "sp. B" (known as the "bristled lanternshark") is now tentatively believed to be the same as this species. It is grouped with the velvet belly lantern shark (E. spinax), Caribbean lanternshark (E. hillianus), fringefin lanternshark (E. schultzi), broadbanded lanternshark (E. gracilispinis), combtooth lanternshark (E. decacuspidatus), and dwarf lanternshark (E. perryi) in having irregularly arranged, needle-shaped dermal denticles.Etmopterus compagnoi is a questionably valid species as it may be based on the brown lanternshark or Etmopterus baxteri.
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