The chain catshark or chain dogfish (''Scyliorhinus retifer'') is a small, reticulated
catshark
Catsharks are ground sharks of the family Scyliorhinidae. They are the largest family of sharks with around 160 species placed in 17 genera. Although they are generally known as catsharks, some species can also be called dogfish due to previous n ...
that is
biofluorescent
Fluorescence is the emission of light by a substance that has absorbed light or other electromagnetic radiation. It is a form of luminescence. In most cases, the emitted light has a longer wavelength, and therefore a lower photon energy, tha ...
. The species is common in the Northwest Atlantic,
Gulf of Mexico
The Gulf of Mexico ( es, Golfo de México) is an oceanic basin, ocean basin and a marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean, largely surrounded by the North American continent. It is bounded on the northeast, north and northwest by the Gulf Coast of ...
and
Caribbean
The Caribbean (, ) ( es, El Caribe; french: la Caraïbe; ht, Karayib; nl, De Caraïben) is a region of the Americas that consists of the Caribbean Sea, its islands (some surrounded by the Caribbean Sea and some bordering both the Caribbean Se ...
.
It is harmless and rarely encountered by humans. It has very similar reproductive traits to the
small-spotted catshark
The small-spotted catshark (''Scyliorhinus canicula''), also known as the sandy dogfish, lesser-spotted dogfish, rough-hound or morgay (in Scotland and Cornwall), is a catshark of the family Scyliorhinidae. It is found on the continental shelves ...
(''S. canicula'').
Distribution
The chain catshark is found in the Northwest Atlantic,
Gulf of Mexico
The Gulf of Mexico ( es, Golfo de México) is an oceanic basin, ocean basin and a marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean, largely surrounded by the North American continent. It is bounded on the northeast, north and northwest by the Gulf Coast of ...
and
Caribbean
The Caribbean (, ) ( es, El Caribe; french: la Caraïbe; ht, Karayib; nl, De Caraïben) is a region of the Americas that consists of the Caribbean Sea, its islands (some surrounded by the Caribbean Sea and some bordering both the Caribbean Se ...
, ranging from
George's Bank in
, to
Nicaragua
Nicaragua (; ), officially the Republic of Nicaragua (), is the largest country in Central America, bordered by Honduras to the north, the Caribbean to the east, Costa Rica to the south, and the Pacific Ocean to the west. Managua is the cou ...
and
Barbados
Barbados is an island country in the Lesser Antilles of the West Indies, in the Caribbean region of the Americas, and the most easterly of the Caribbean Islands. It occupies an area of and has a population of about 287,000 (2019 estimate). ...
.
[ In the ]Mid-Atlantic Bight
The Mid-Atlantic Bight is a coastal region running from Massachusetts to North Carolina. It contains the New York Bight. It is separated from the South Atlantic Bight by Cape Hatteras to the south and the Gulf of Maine to the north by Cape Cod
...
, the chain catshark is found along the outer continental shelf
A continental shelf is a portion of a continent that is submerged under an area of relatively shallow water, known as a shelf sea. Much of these shelves were exposed by drops in sea level during glacial periods. The shelf surrounding an island ...
and upper slope.[ The shark occupies depths of ; in the northern part of its range it is mainly found between and in the southern areas generally deeper than .] Due to the shark's depth distribution, it has been suggested that the shark does not perform large-scale migrations.[
Temperature is thought to limit the shark's distribution in northern areas, particularly during the winter. Although bands of warm water at the edge of the shelf have been observed, the temperature varies seasonally, thus limiting this non-migratory species.][ In general, the chain catshark is found in waters with a temperature between ][ and .]
Scyliorhinus retifer jaws.jpg, Jaws
Scyliorhinus retifer upper teeth.jpg, Upper teeth
Scyliorhinus retifer lower teeth.jpg, Lower teeth
Habitat and behavior
The catshark spends the daytime resting at the bottom, usually in contact with certain structures. It has been observed with large burrowing cerianthid anemone
''Anemone'' () is a genus of flowering plants in the buttercup family Ranunculaceae. Plants of the genus are commonly called windflowers. They are native to the temperate and subtropical regions of all continents except Australia, New Zealand an ...
tubes and boulders.[ The bottom rubble is thought to be used as a camouflage with the shark's spotted surface.][ Adult sharks tend to prefer rough bottoms, creating a difficulty for ]trawl
Trawling is a method of fishing that involves pulling a fishing net through the water behind one or more boats. The net used for trawling is called a trawl. This principle requires netting bags which are towed through water to catch different speci ...
sampling, while the immature forms are found near smoother regions. The chain catshark has been known to feed on squid, bony fish, polychaetes
Polychaeta () is a paraphyletic class of generally marine annelid worms, commonly called bristle worms or polychaetes (). Each body segment has a pair of fleshy protrusions called parapodia that bear many bristles, called chaetae, which are mad ...
and crustaceans.[ In aquaria, they are relatively motionless, spending the day resting on the bottom, but during the night and when fed they are very active.]
Reproduction
Size and sexual maturity
The maximum length of this shark is .[
In the female chain catshark, follicle development has been correlated to ]nidamental gland
Nidamental glands are internal organs found in some elasmobranchs and certain molluscs, including cephalopods (specifically Decapodiformes and nautiluses) and gastropods.Young, R.E., M. Vecchione & K.M. Mangold (1999)Cephalopoda Glossary Tree of Li ...
size, thus, they are considered mature when they have a fully developed nidamental gland or shell gland.[ This is marked by the glands growth to or more in width. Sexual maturity in the female is seen at in length under normal conditions. There has been evidence however that some northern populations of the shark may mature at a smaller size, at . In the male catshark, testis development is correlated to ]clasper
In biology, a clasper is a male anatomical structure found in some groups of animals, used in mating.
Male cartilaginous fish have claspers formed from the posterior portion of their pelvic fin which serve to channel semen into the female's c ...
size, thus maturity is marked when it develops hardened claspers that are or more in length.[ Males reach maturity at a length between .][
]
Mating
Observed mating between the species suggests biting plays an element and that mating occurs repeatedly. Behavioral observations include the male biting the female until it can get a firm grasp and subsequently wraps its body around the female for copulation.[ After copulation, the male releases his bite and both separate.
]
Egg-laying
The chain catshark prefers vertical structures for egg deposition and always deposits eggs in pairs. The interval between pairs of eggs ranges from a few minutes to 8 days.[ Development rates average 1 mm diameter per 7.7 days although temperature has also been seen to affect follicle development.][
]
Sperm storage and egg cases
The female chain catshark is able to store sperm and lay eggs several days after initial copulation. The shark has been known to store sperm up to 843 days although, there are some circumstances of poor egg development in eggs laid later. It is suggested that this could be due to a number of factors including, senescence
Senescence () or biological aging is the gradual deterioration of functional characteristics in living organisms. The word ''senescence'' can refer to either cellular senescence or to senescence of the whole organism. Organismal senescence inv ...
, low sperm viability, or water quality factors.[
Egg cases found in the oviduct are soft, pale yellow and translucent. They also feature two coiled tendrils, a key adaptation which allows snagging on rocks or man made structures, providing grounding and safety. When deposited, they become hardened and become dark amber with white bands.
]
Embryos
Embryos take 8–12 months to develop due to temperature variations in the environment. The catshark lays eggs in their blastodisc
The blastodisc, also called the germinal disc, is the embryo-forming part on the yolk of the egg of an animal that undergoes discoidal meroblastic cleavage. Discoidal cleavage occurs in those animals with a large proportion of yolk in their eggs, ...
form. The following exhibits a typical developmental timeline (measurements are embryo length):[
* – it has well-defined ]gill arches
Branchial arches, or gill arches, are a series of bony "loops" present in fish, which support the gills. As gills are the primitive condition of vertebrates, all vertebrate embryos develop pharyngeal arches, though the eventual fate of these arc ...
and has a thin ventral finfold
* – dorsal and pelvic fin buds appear
* – embryo has protruding eyes and well-developed gill filaments
A gill () is a respiratory organ that many aquatic organisms use to extract dissolved oxygen from water and to excrete carbon dioxide. The gills of some species, such as hermit crabs, have adapted to allow respiration on land provided they are ...
* – it has lost its translucency and develops slits in the egg case, allowing fluid exchange from surrounding seawater and the interior
* – the finfold starts to decay
* – the finfold and gill filaments are reduced or absent
* – external appearance is complete but yolk sac
The yolk sac is a membranous sac attached to an embryo, formed by cells of the hypoblast layer of the bilaminar embryonic disc. This is alternatively called the umbilical vesicle by the Terminologia Embryologica (TE), though ''yolk sac'' is far ...
is still being absorbed
* – hatching
Fluorescence
The chain catshark is one of four elasmobranch
Elasmobranchii () is a subclass of Chondrichthyes or cartilaginous fish, including sharks (superorder Selachii), rays, skates, and sawfish (superorder Batoidea). Members of this subclass are characterised by having five to seven pairs of gil ...
species shown to possesses biofluorescent
Fluorescence is the emission of light by a substance that has absorbed light or other electromagnetic radiation. It is a form of luminescence. In most cases, the emitted light has a longer wavelength, and therefore a lower photon energy, tha ...
properties. The researchers of the study examined the vision of ''Scyliorhinus retifer'' using microspectrophotometry and designed a "shark-eye" camera that yielded contrast information on areas where fluorescence is anatomically distributed on the shark. The repeated evolution of biofluorescence in elasmobranchs, coupled with a visual adaptation to detect it; and evidence that biofluorescence creates greater luminosity contrast with the surrounding background, highlights the potential importance of biofluorescence in elasmobranch behavior and biology. The key fluorecent pigments in the chain catshark and the swell shark
The swell shark (''Cephaloscyllium ventriosum'') is a catshark in the family Scyliorhinidae. It is found in the tropical and subtropical eastern Pacific Ocean from between central California to southern Mexico, with an additional population off ...
are a set of brominated kynurenine
-Kynurenine is a metabolite of the amino acid -tryptophan used in the production of niacin.
Kynurenine is synthesized by the enzyme tryptophan dioxygenase, which is made primarily but not exclusively in the liver, and indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase ...
compounds that appear to be synthesized by the kynurenine pathway 400px, The kynurenine pathway
The kynurenine pathway is a metabolic pathway leading to the production of nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD+). Metabolites involved in the kynurenine pathway include tryptophan, kynurenine, kynurenic acid, xa ...
starting from 6-bromo-tryptophan
Tryptophan (symbol Trp or W)
is an α-amino acid that is used in the biosynthesis of proteins. Tryptophan contains an α-amino group, an α- carboxylic acid group, and a side chain indole, making it a polar molecule with a non-polar aromatic ...
. The biochemical origin of 6-bromo-tryptophan in these species is not known.
Relationship with humans
The chain catshark is not currently fished for human consumption.
The chain catshark has been described as "gorgeous", and this, combined with its small size, makes it a popular cold-water aquarium fish.[ It is frequently displayed and bred at ]public aquarium
A public aquarium (plural: ''public aquaria'' or ''public Water Zoo'') is the aquatic counterpart of a zoo, which houses living aquatic animal and plant specimens for public viewing. Most public aquariums feature tanks larger than those kept b ...
s.[ Research in shark behavior, including reproduction, has been done in chain catsharks kept in public aquariums or laboratories.][
]
References
Further reading
{{Taxonbar, from=Q648208
chain catshark
The chain catshark or chain dogfish (''Scyliorhinus retifer'') is a small, reticulated catshark that is biofluorescent. The species is common in the Northwest Atlantic, Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean. It is harmless and rarely encountered by human ...
Fauna of the Southeastern United States
Fish of the Eastern United States
Fish of the Gulf of Mexico
Fish of the Caribbean
Fish of the Dominican Republic
chain catshark
The chain catshark or chain dogfish (''Scyliorhinus retifer'') is a small, reticulated catshark that is biofluorescent. The species is common in the Northwest Atlantic, Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean. It is harmless and rarely encountered by human ...
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