Chain catshark
Appearance
Chain catshark | |
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Species: | S. retifer
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Binomial name | |
Scyliorhinus retifer (Garman, 1881)
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Template:Sharksportal The chain catshark, Scyliorhinus retifer, also called the chain dogfish, is a spotted catshark whose spots fluoresce under blue light.
Mikhail Matz, a professor of marine biology at the University of Florida, was the first to document the shark's previously-unknown fluorescent properties. A specimen that proved to be a chain catshark was filmed by Matz off the Gulf of Mexico in August 2005, a few days before Hurricane Katrina blew through.
Trivia
The fictional jaguar shark from the 2004 Bill Murray film The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou is similar in appearance, being capable of bioluminescence, though the chain catshark was discovered after the film was released.
References
- Template:IUCN2006 Database entry includes justification for why this species is of least concern
- "Scyliorhinus retifer". Integrated Taxonomic Information System. 30 January.
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mismatch (help) - Froese, Rainer; Pauly, Daniel (eds.). "Scyliorhinus retifer". FishBase. Nov 2005 version.
External links