Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations for a world without hunger Fisheries Division

Species Fact Sheets Squatina australis (Regan, 1906)

Squatina australis: (click for more)

FAO Names En - Australian , Fr - Ange de mer australien, Sp - Angelote australiano. 3Alpha Code: SUU Taxonomic Code: 1090300405

Scientific Name with Original Description Squatina australis Regan, 1906b, Ann.Mag.Nat.Hist., (Ser. 7), 18:438. Holotype: British Museum (Natural History), 530 mm. Type Locality: Port Jackson, .

Diagnostic Features fieldmarks: An angelshark with a broad trunk, dorsal spines weak or absent, heavily fringed nasal barbels and anterior nasal flaps, lateral dermal folds of head without triangular lobes, and no large ocelli on body.

Trunk very broad. Anterior nasal barbels strongly fringed; posterior margin of anterior nasal flaps between nasal barbels and tips strongly fringed; distance from eye to spiracle at least 1.5 times eye diameter; dermal folds on sides of head without triangular lobes. Origin of first dorsal fin usually about opposite pelvic rear tips; pectoral fins rather short and high, free rear tips narrowly subangular. No large spines on midline of back and tail or on snout and above eyes; lateral trunk denticles without ridges. No ocelli on body, but with numerous small, symmetrical, white spots.

Geographical Distribution

FAO Fisheries and Aquaculture Department Launch the Aquatic Species Distribution map viewer

Western South Pacific: Australia (South and , , , Victoria).

Habitat and Biology A common but tittle-known angelshark of the continental shelf and uppermost slope, on or near bottom,from close inshore to 256 m depth. Ovoviviparous.

Size Maximum total length about 152 cm.

Interest to Fisheries Taken by bottom trawlers in Australia. Utilization unknown.

Source of Information FAO species catalogue Vol.4. of the world. An Annotated and Illustrated Catalogue of Species Known to Date Part 1 - Hexanchiformes to Lamniformes. Compagno, L.J.V.1984FAO Fisheries Synopsis. , (125) Vol.4, Part 1.

Bibliography Bigelow & Schroeder, 1948 Stead, 1963 Whitley, 1940

FAO Fisheries and Aquaculture Department FAO Fisheries and Aquaculture Department