Author: (Rafinesque, 1809)
Eugomphodus taurus (Rafinesque, 1809)
Status in World Register of Marine Species:
Accepted name: Carcharias taurus Rafinesque, 1810 (updated 2009-06-25)
Diagnosis: first upper tooth usually a little smaller, but sometimes of the same size as second and third, the fourth much smaller than the third and fifth, with a broad interspace between fourth and fifth; teeth usually with 1 or 2 small basal cusplets on either side. Second dorsal fin and anal fin about as large as first dorsal fin; origin of pelvic fins a little posterior to rear end of first dorsal fin base and about below the free rear corner of first dorsal fin. Colour: light grey-brown above, white below, often marked with yellowish-brown to ochre yellow roundish or oval spots. Size: to about 3.2 m.
Habitat: coastal species, living mostly on or close to bottom, entering bays; found from the surface to 200 m, mainly less than 70 m; infrequent in Clofnam area. Food: wide range of small bony fishes, small sharks, squids and occasionally crabs and lobsters. Reproduction: ovoviviparous, usually with two young, sometimes only one; size at birth 0.95-1.05 m.
Distribution: eastern Atlantic, from Gulf of Guinea to the Canaries; also Mediterranean, Adriatic. Elswhere, western Atlantic, western Indian Ocean and western Pacific.
Eggs, larvae and young stages. Growth of young in oviducts. American specimens, Springer, 1948: 153 156 | West African specimens, Cadenat, 1956: 1253-1255.