Mollisquama mississippiensis, American pocket shark

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Mollisquama mississippiensis Grace, Doosey, Denton, Naylor, Bart & Maisey, 2019

American pocket shark
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drawing shows typical species in Dalatiidae.

Classification / Names Common names | Synonyms | Catalog of Fishes(genus, species) | ITIS | CoL | WoRMS | Cloffa

Elasmobranchii (sharks and rays) > Squaliformes (Sleeper and dogfish sharks) > Dalatiidae (Sleeper sharks)
Etymology: Mollisquama: mollis (L.), soft; squama (L.), scale, referring to its soft scales, apparently unique among sharks. (See ETYFish);  mississippiensis: -ensis, Latin suffix denoting place: the “vast” North American Mississippi River Basin, a “biologically and geographically rich region that nurtures Gulf of Mexico [type locality] fauna and unites diverse cultures”. (See ETYFish).

Environment: milieu / climate zone / depth range / distribution range Ecology

Marine; pelagic. Deep-water

Distribution Countries | FAO areas | Ecosystems | Occurrences | Point map | Introductions | Faunafri

Western Central Atlantic: Gulf of Mexico.

Size / Weight / Age

Maturity: Lm ?  range ? - ? cm
Max length : 14.2 cm TL male/unsexed; (Ref. 121924)

Short description Morphology | Morphometrics

This species is distinguished from its congeners by the following characters: a putative pit organ centrally placed just posterior to the lower jaw margin; photophores are irregularly distributed along many areas of the body; with a series of 16 ventral-abdominal photophore aggregations; upper teeth no labial-surface ridge (vs. present in M. parini); lower teeth with a weak or absent basal sulcus (vs. deep sulcus in M. parini) (Ref. 121924).

Biology     Glossary (e.g. epibenthic)

This species was collected with a midwater trawl during a cetacean research project to assess predator/prey trophodynamics for sperm whales (Physeter macrocephalus) of the Gulf of Mexico. Trawl fishing depths were from 5 m of surface to a maximum trawl fishing depth of 580 m over 3,038 m bottom depth; with the sea bottom relatively flat abyssal plain without significant bathymetric features. Environmental sampling conducted within 10 nautical miles of the trawl location with surface/maximum trawling depth environmental data; temperature 21.5°C/7.2°C, oxygen saturation 6.6 mg/l/ 4.0 mg/l, and salinity 36.5 psu/34.9 psu. Other fauna were captured including 44 species identified to lowest taxon (3.3 kg total catch weight, 731 specimens); 29 finfish taxa, 15 invertebrate taxa. Collection locations of M. mississippiensis captured above an abyssal plain 3,038 m depth is influenced by the relatively warm Gulf Stream while M. parini captured above an extensive seamount ridge 330 m depth is influenced by the relatively cold sub-Antarctic Humboldt Current (Ref. 121924).

Life cycle and mating behavior Maturity | Reproduction | Spawning | Eggs | Fecundity | Larvae

Main reference Upload your references | References | Coordinator : Compagno, Leonard J.V. | Collaborators

Grace, M.A., M.H. Doosey, J.S. Denton, G.J.P. Naylor, H.L. Bart Jr. and J.G. Maisey, 2019. A new Western North Atlantic Ocean kitefin shark (Squaliformes: Dalatiidae) from the Gulf of Mexico. Zootaxa 4619(1):109-120. (Ref. 121924)

IUCN Red List Status (Ref. 130435)

  Least Concern (LC) ; Date assessed: 21 June 2019

CITES

Not Evaluated

CMS (Ref. 116361)

Not Evaluated

Threat to humans

  Harmless





Human uses

FAO - Publication: search | FishSource |

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Common names
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Internet sources

AFORO (otoliths) | Aquatic Commons | BHL | Cloffa | BOLDSystems | Websites from users | Check FishWatcher | CISTI | Catalog of Fishes: genus, species | DiscoverLife | ECOTOX | FAO - Publication: search | Faunafri | Fishipedia | Fishtrace | GenBank: genome, nucleotide | GloBI | Google Books | Google Scholar | Google | IGFA World Record | MitoFish | Otolith Atlas of Taiwan Fishes | PubMed | Reef Life Survey | Socotra Atlas | Tree of Life | Wikipedia: Go, Search | World Records Freshwater Fishing | Zoobank | Zoological Record

Estimates based on models

Phylogenetic diversity index (Ref. 82804):  PD50 = No PD50 data   [Uniqueness, from 0.5 = low to 2.0 = high].
Trophic level (Ref. 69278):  3.8   ±0.3 se; based on size and trophs of closest relatives
Resilience (Ref. 120179):  High, minimum population doubling time less than 15 months (Preliminary K or Fecundity.).
Fishing Vulnerability (Ref. 59153):  Low vulnerability (10 of 100).