Author: (Bonnaterre, 1788)
Ginglymostoma cirratum (Bonnaterre, 1788)
Status in World Register of Marine Species:
Accepted name: Ginglymostoma cirratum (Bonnaterre, 1788) (updated 2009-06-25)
Diagnosis: snout very short, broad and bluntly rounded; mouth nearly transverse, connecting with the nostrils by deep grooves; anterior margin of each nostril with a long barbel; eyes behind mouth; two last gill openings close to each other. Colour: back yellow to greyish-brown, belly light yellowish; small dark spots in young. Size: males to at least 2.6 m, females to 4.3 m TL (usually to 3.4 m).
Habitat: benthic, chiefly inshore on the continental and insular shelves, often around mangrove areas and over rocky bottoms and sand flats. Food: mainly invertebrates (squids, shrimps, crabs, spiny lobsters, sea urchins), but also small fishes. Reproduction: ovoviviparous; females described with 28 large eggs; size at birth about 27-29 cm.
Distribution: Gulf of Biscay. Elsewhere, western and eastern centra Atlantic, eastern Pacific.
Complementary iconography. Garman, 1913, Pl. 71 Bigelow and Schroeder, 1948b, fig. 29.
Eggs, larvae and young stages. Budker, 1935: 183.