Japanese angel shark
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Order: Squatiniformes
Family: Squatinidae

[Photo] Japanese Angel Shark (Squatina japonica). Korean: 전자리상어. Busan Aquarium. Date: 2004-07-10. Photo: Jinsuk Kim. License: public domain.

The Japanese angel shark, Squatina japonica, is an angel shark of the family Squatinidae found in the western Pacific from Japan, the Yellow Sea, Korea, northern China, and the Philippines between latitudes 41° N and 19° N. Its length is up to 2 m.

The little-known Japanese angelshark is found on or near the bottom on sandy ground. It has broad pectoral fins with rounded free rear tips, posterior margins nearly straight, and the inner margins are strongly convex. The nasal barbels are simple and spatulate, and the head is concave between the large eyes. The anterior nasal flaps are smooth to weakly fringed, and the dermal folds on the sides of the head are without lobes. The rear tips of the inner margins of the pelvic fins are considerably anterior to the origin of the first dorsal fin. There is a very short hypocercal tail, and there are rows of moderately large spines on the midline of the back and tail from the head to the dorsal fins and between the fin bases, and on the snout and above the eyes. It feeds on benthic animals. It is utilized for human consumption and for the preparation of shagreen.

Coloration is rusty or blackish-brown with small dark and pale spots dorsally, and no ocelli (eye-like spots), and white below.

Reproduction is ovoviviparous.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_angel_shark

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