Author: (Linnaeus, 1758)
Scyliorhinus stellaris (Linnaeus, 1758)
Status in World Register of Marine Species:
Accepted name: Scyliorhinus stellaris (Linnaeus, 1758) (updated 2009-06-25)
Diagnosis: snout shorter than width across the mouth; nostrils not joined to mouth, without depressed areas of the upper lip; nasal flaps widely separated and not quite reaching to edge of upper lip. Upper labial furrows absent on the outer edge of nostril, interior nasal flap broad and reaching weil across the snout. Origin of the second dorsal fin slightly in advance of the posterior end of the anal fin base. Colour: upper body surfaces sandy or greyish, covered by rounded dark spots larger than the pupil, rather sparsely distributed. Size: to 162 cm, usually 130 cm.
Habitat: benthic over rough, even rocky or coralline ground, from shallow waters to about 65 m around British Isles. Food: bottom-living invertebrates (molluscs, crustaceans) and demersal fishes. Reproduction: oviparous; size at hatching 16 cm.
Distribution: Atlantic coasts from Morocco northward to the Shetlands
(rare) and southern Scandinavia; also, Mediterranean.
Complementary iconography. Bonaparte, 1834, fasc. 7 | Lozano Rey, 1928, fig. 88-90 | Tortonese, 1956, fig. 66-69 | Bini, 1967, fig. on pp. 59-60 | Wheeler, 1969, fig. 15 | Marshall, 1971: col. fig. 42.
Eggs, larvae and young stages. Oviparous. Ford, 1921: 492, 499, fig. 5-7,16-19 | Bini, 1967: 60, fig. d.