Author: (Linnaeus, 1758)
Squatina squatina (Linnaeus, 1758)
Status in World Register of Marine Species:
Accepted name: Squatina squatina (Linnaeus, 1758) (updated 2009-06-25)
Diagnosis: eye smaller than spiracle. Frontal cephalic membranes triangular; external nasal flap with two barbels bordering a median indented lobe; spiracle with 10 pseudobranchial lamellae. Teeth 18-22/18-22, mean 20/20. Pectoral fin base at least half length of fin; hind tips of pelvic fins reaching to level of first dorsal fin origin. Denticles on back sharply pointed; lower surfaces almost entirely covered with denticles. Vertebrae 60-61 to level of first dorsal fin. Colour: greenish-brown, with some dark spots and speckles; young often with white reticulation on ground colour. Size: to 2.5 m and 80 kg.
Habitat: a bottom-dweller on sand or mud at moderate depths (5-100 m). Food: bottom organisms, mainly fishes, molluscs, crustaceans. Reproduction: ovoviviparous; eggs 6-8 cm in diameter; 7-25 embryos, depending on size of female; gestation 10 months, parturition December-February (Mediterranean), perhaps later in northern waters; newly born 20-30 cm.
Distribution: Atlantic coasts from Morocco to British Isles and southern North Sea; also, Mediterranean and Black Sea. Elsewhere, southward to Mauretania.
Complementary iconography. Rasmussen and Dannevig, 1960: 76, pl. 192 | Marshall, 1971: col. fig. 213.
Eggs, embryonic and young stages. Lo Bianco, 1909: 684 | Capapé, 1974a: 245.