|
Range and Habitat: A common inshore bottom shark found on tropical coral reefs in the Western South Pacific. New Guinea, Australia, (Northern territory, Western Australia, Queensland, and new South Wales). Possibly also Malaysia and Sumatra. They commonly occur in the intertidal, in tide pools on rocky or coral reefs close inshore.
Description: The maximum total length is about 107 cm (42 inches, 3.5 feet). Females are often larger than males. The mouth is well in front of the eyes with a greatly elongated, thick precaudal tail. The body is slenderer and snout more swollen and elongated than in other species. Epaulette sharks have a color pattern of scattered large dark spots, not close set and not forming a pattern on the brown background color. The flanks above the pectoral fins have a very large black spot, ringed with white in the form of a conspicuous ocellus but without surrounding large spots. Gill slits small, with the fifth overlapping the fourth.
Habits and Adaptations: The teeth are not strongly different in the jaw. Most are small and molar like throughout the mouth. Their slender bodies and strong, muscular, leg-like paired pectoral fins are ideal for clambering on reefs and in crevices. Movement of these sharks in their habitat is most likely dictated by food source. Most of their activity occurs during the day.
Diet: Food for these sharks is little known, but probably includes small bony fishes and invertebrates.
Breeding and Maturation: Reproductive habits of these sharks aren’t well known. In captivity males tend to search out females during breeding season. They are oviparous. The rounded egg cases are deposited on the ocean floor near their habitat. Lifespan is unknown.
Miscellaneous: No fisheries know at the present time. These are common, small, harmless inshore sharks of continental waters of the tropical western Pacific. Large sharks and fish as well as humans are predators of this shark.
|