Acta Ichthyologica et Piscatoria 50(4): 475-480, doi: 10.3750/AIEP/02998
First record of little sleeper shark, Somniosus rostratus (Elasmobranchii: Squaliformes: Somniosidae), from the Tunisian coast, central Mediterranean Sea
C. Capapé, S. Rafrafi-Nouira, Y. Diatta, C. ReynaudCorresponding author: C. Capapé © C. Capapé, S. Rafrafi-Nouira, Y. Diatta, C. Reynaud. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Citation:
Capapé C, Rafrafi-Nouira S, Diatta Y, Reynaud C (2020) First record of little sleeper shark, Somniosus rostratus (Elasmobranchii: Squaliformes: Somniosidae), from the Tunisian coast, central Mediterranean Sea. Acta Ichthyologica et Piscatoria 50(4): 475-480. https://doi.org/10.3750/AIEP/02998 |  |
Abstract
The first record of the little sleeper shark, Somniosus rostratus (Risso, 1827), from the Tunisian coast, is presented in this note. It was an adult female measuring 990 mm total length and weighing 4500 g. The capture occurred off Ras Jebel located in north-eastern Tunisia at a depth of 120 m. The specimen is herein described including morphological measurements, color, and dental formula. Due to a lack of records, the real status of the species in the Mediterranean Sea remains questionable. Somniosus rostratus is rarely caught in this sea because it lives in deep bottoms poorly exploited by commercial vessels. However, recent captures of specimens and occurrence of nursery grounds suggest that a viable population of S. rostratus is probably established in this sea.
Keywords
description, morphometric measurements, dental formula, deep bottoms, fragmented distribution, nursery grounds