Southern African frilled shark
| Southern African frilled shark | |
|---|---|
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Chondrichthyes |
| Order: | Hexanchiformes |
| Family: | Chlamydoselachidae |
| Genus: | Chlamydoselachus |
| Species: | C. africana |
| Binomial name | |
|
Chlamydoselachus africana Ebert & Compagno, 2009 |
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| Range of the southern African frilled shark | |
The southern African frilled shark (Chlamydoselachus africana) is a species of shark in the family Chlamydoselachidae, described in 2009. It is found in the deep waters off southern Angola to southern Namibia. This species is difficult to distinguish from the better-known frilled shark (C. anguineus), but is smaller at maturity and differs in several proportional measurements including head length and mouth width. It seems to be a specialized predator of smaller sharks, using its flexible jaws and numerous needle-like, recurved teeth to capture and swallow them whole. Reproduction is presumably ovoviviparous, as with the other member of its family.
The frilled shark (C. anguineus) was long thought to be the only extant member of its genus and family. The existence of a second Chlamydoselachus species off southern Africa was first suspected from a specimen caught off Lüderitz, Namibia in February 1988, by the South African research ship FRS Africana (after which this species would eventually be named). The specimen was an adult male smaller than other known mature C. anguineus, and subsequent investigations revealed other consistent differences between frilled sharks in this region and C. anguineus. The new species was termed Chlamydoselachus "sp. A", before being formally described in 2009 by David Ebert and Leonard Compagno, in a paper for the scientific journal Zootaxa. The holotype was a 117 cm (46 in) long immature female caught at a depth of 409 m (1,342 ft) off the Cunene River, Namibia, by the research vessel Benguela.
The southern African frilled shark has only been confirmed to occur from off southern Angola to southern Namibia. Frilled sharks have also been captured off South Africa, at 1,230–1,400 m (4,040–4,590 ft) deep off Eastern Cape Province, and at 300 m (980 ft) deep off KwaZulu-Natal Province; it is uncertain whether these specimens are C. africana. Little is known of its habitat preferences; one known specimen was caught 425 m (1,394 ft) down in a zone of low dissolved oxygen and high nutrients, over a soft substrate.
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