Author: (Linnaeus, 1758)
Galeorhinus galeus (Linnaeus, 1758)
Status in World Register of Marine Species:
Accepted name: Galeorhinus galeus (Linnaeus, 1758) (updated 2009-06-25)
Diagnosis: snout relatively long, conical. Eyes almond-shaped. Spiracle present, well developed. Teeth in both jaws similar, anterior three teeth erect, rest oblique with a primary cusp and several cusplets on outer margin. First dorsal fin broadly triangular, its origin over free tip of pectoral; second dorsal fin smaller, anal fin approximately equal to it; no inter-dorsal ridge; no pre-caudal pits; sub-terminal notch on upper caudal fin lobe large. Colour: grey to brown above, white below. Size: to over 200 cm TL, common to 150 cm TL.
Habitat: coastal to epipelagic. Food: primarily fishes and squids. Reproduction: ovoviviparous, number of young up to 45, but 25-35 common; gestation period I year, pups born at approximately 35 cm TL.
Distribution: Madeira northward to Iceland and Norway; present but uncommon in Mediterranean. Elsewhere, south-east and south-west Atlantic, south-east and south-west Indian Ocean. also eastern Pacific; apparently absent from north-west Atlantic and north-west Pacific.
Complementary iconography. Bonaparte, 1834, fasc. 8, fig. 3 | Day, 1882, pl. 153 | Smitt, 1895, fig. 327, pl. 50 (fig. 2) | Lozano Rey, 1928 fig. 9496.
Eggs, larvae and young stages. Ranzi, 1932: 261; 1934: 383, 418 | Tortonese, 1956: 157, fig. 84 | Capapé, 1974a: 237.