Spiny dogfish
Squalus acanthias
— Where the name comes from
Squalus in Latin denoted a large sea fish, and from that word come both the scientific name and the Italian squalo. Acanthias comes from the Greek ákantha, the thorn: in front of each of its two dorsal fins it carries a sharp spine connected to a weak venom gland. The Italian common name translates exactly that detail.
— Facts
- Group
- Fish · Actinopterygii · Chondrichthyes
- Order
- Dogfish sharks
- Habitat
- Sandy and muddy bottoms between 10 and 200 metres
- Range
- Temperate seas worldwide
- Size
- 80–120 cm, up to 160 cm; 3–9 kg
- Diet
- Fish, squid, crustaceans, jellyfish
- Lifespan
- 40 years, some over 70
— Characteristics
- 01
It lives in enormous schools sorted by size and by sex.
- 02
It is the most studied shark in laboratories: generations have dissected it at school.
- 03
It bears live young, two to eleven at a time.
— What sets it apart
Its gestation lasts between twenty and twenty-four months, the longest of any vertebrate: a good year and a half more than an elephant’s. Combined with maturity reached at around twenty, that leaves the species unable to withstand heavy fishing, and the North Atlantic populations have indeed collapsed while millions of individuals went into English fish and chips under the name rock salmon. It is the most abundant shark in the world, and it is vulnerable.
