''Echinorhinus'' is the only extant genus in the family Echinorhinidae.

Taxonomy

Echinorhinidae are traditionally classified in the order Squaliformes, together with kitefin and gulper sharks.Compagno, 2005. "Sharks of the World". However, a phylogenetic estimate based on gene capture data and mitochondrial data suggests that they are not squaliform sharks, but may be more likely to be appropriately classed in their own group, as a sister group to angel sharks and sawsharks. Phylogenetic placement of Echinorhinidae has been ambiguous in morphological and molecular studies, either being included within Squaliformes, considered sister to Squaliformes, or placed in a separate group with Sawsharks (Pristiophoriformes) or angel sharks (Squatiniformes). For this reason they are sometimes given their own order, Echinorhiniformes.

Etymology

The name is from

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

''echinos'' meaning "spiny" and ''rhinos'' meaning "nose".

Species

* ''Echinorhinus brucus'' Bonnaterre, 1788 (

bramble shark The bramble shark (''Echinorhinus brucus'') is one of the two species of sharks in the family Echinorhinidae. Aside from the eastern Pacific Ocean, it is found in tropical and temperate waters worldwide. This rarely encountered shark swims close ...

) * ''Echinorhinus cookei'' Pietschmann, 1928 (

prickly shark The prickly shark (''Echinorhinus cookei'') is one of the two species of sharks in the family Echinorhinidae (the other one is the bramble shark), found in the Pacific Ocean over continental and insular shelves and slopes, and in submarine canyon ...

)

Description

This genus includes two extant species of uncommon, little-known sharks. Both species are relatively large sharks, at in body length. They are characterized by a short nose and by rough, thorn-like

dermal denticle A fish scale is a small rigid plate that grows out of the skin of a fish. The skin of most jawed fishes is covered with these protective scales, which can also provide effective camouflage through the use of reflection and colouration, as we ...

s scattered over its body, some of which may be fused together. They have no

anal fin Fins are distinctive anatomical features composed of bony spines or rays protruding from the body of a fish. They are covered with skin and joined together either in a webbed fashion, as seen in most bony fish, or similar to a flipper, as se ...

. Two small spineless

dorsal fin A dorsal fin is a fin located on the back of most marine and freshwater vertebrates within various taxa of the animal kingdom. Many species of animals possessing dorsal fins are not particularly closely related to each other, though through conv ...

s are positioned far back.

Biology

They are

ovoviviparous Ovoviviparity, ovovivipary, ovivipary, or aplacental viviparity is a term used as a "bridging" form of reproduction between egg-laying oviparous and live-bearing viviparous reproduction. Ovoviviparous animals possess embryos that develop insi ...

, with the mother retaining the egg-cases inside her body until they hatch, producing litters up to 24 pups. They feed on smaller sharks, smaller bony fish, and on crabs and

cephalopod A cephalopod is any member of the molluscan class Cephalopoda (Greek plural , ; "head-feet") such as a squid, octopus, cuttlefish, or nautilus. These exclusively marine animals are characterized by bilateral body symmetry, a prominent head ...

Distribution

These sharks are found worldwide in cold temperate to tropical seas from the surface down to .

References

* * * * FAO Species Catalogue Volume 4 Parts 1 and 2 Sharks of the World {{Taxonbar, from=Q1473514 Echinorhinidae Extant Campanian first appearances Shark genera Taxa named by Henri Marie Ducrotay de Blainville