Description
Reaching no more than 60 cm (24 in) long, the dark shyshark differs from other shysharks in that it is slender-bodied when juvenile and stocky-bodied when adult. Its head is short, wide, and flattened, with a bluntly rounded snout and very large nostrils. The anterior rims of the nostrils bear greatly enlarged lobes of skin, which are fused into a single flap that reaches the mouth; the flap conceals the nasal excurrent openings and a pair of grooves that run between them and the mouth. The large, horizontally oval eyes are equipped with rudimentary nictitating membranes (protective third eyelids), and have strong ridges beneath. The mouth is short but wide and bears furrows at the corners extending onto both jaws. There are 45–83 upper and 47–75 lower tooth rows; each tooth has a long central cusp flanked by a pair of smaller cusplets. The five pairs of gill slits are located fairly high on the body.
The two dorsal fins are of nearly equal size and placed far back on the body, with the first originating over the latter third of the pelvic fin bases and the second over the latter half of the anal fin base. The pectoral and pelvic fins are broad and rounded; the males have stout claspers. The pelvic and anal fins are about as large as the dorsal fins. The broad caudal fin comprises about a fifth of the total body length and has a strong notch near the tip of the upper lobe and an indistinct lower lobe. The skin is thick and covered by well-calcified arrowhead-shaped dermal denticles. The coloration of the dark shyshark is highly variable, and particular individuals can resemble any of the other shyshark species. The background color ranges from light brown to reddish to grayish to almost black above, transitioning abruptly to white or cream below, sometimes with dark blotches beneath the paired fins. There may be 6–8 orange, brown, or blackish variably shaped saddles along the back and tail, edged more or less obviously in black. There may also be white spots within or within and between the saddles.
Read more about this topic: Dark Shyshark
Famous quotes containing the word description:
“I fancy it must be the quantity of animal food eaten by the English which renders their character insusceptible of civilisation. I suspect it is in their kitchens and not in their churches that their reformation must be worked, and that Missionaries of that description from [France] would avail more than those who should endeavor to tame them by precepts of religion or philosophy.”
—Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826)
“Why does philosophy use concepts and why does faith use symbols if both try to express the same ultimate? The answer, of course, is that the relation to the ultimate is not the same in each case. The philosophical relation is in principle a detached description of the basic structure in which the ultimate manifests itself. The relation of faith is in principle an involved expression of concern about the meaning of the ultimate for the faithful.”
—Paul Tillich (1886–1965)
“The Sage of Toronto ... spent several decades marveling at the numerous freedoms created by a “global village” instantly and effortlessly accessible to all. Villages, unlike towns, have always been ruled by conformism, isolation, petty surveillance, boredom and repetitive malicious gossip about the same families. Which is a precise enough description of the global spectacle’s present vulgarity.”
—Guy Debord (b. 1931)