Dwarf False Catshark

This small deep-water pseudotriakid species is distinguished by the following set of characters: soft body; bell-shaped head with a broadly parabolic snout; preorbital snout length 1.5-1.9 times the eye length; preoral length 0.7-0.8 times the mouth width, 1.4-1.5 times the prenarial snout length; eye length 1.9-2.3 times the nostril width; relatively broad head, width at middle gill slits 10-16% of TL; preorbital snout length 1.0-1.7 times the interorbital space (integumental) and 2.1-2.3 (skeletal), respectively; head length 2.0-2.5 times the mouth width, 9.8-10.9 times the nostril width, 2.8-3.3 times the length of preventral caudal-fin margin; length of pectoral-fin anterior margin 2.1-2.2 times the pectoral base length; length of first dorsal-fin inner margin 0.4-0.5 times the pectoral-fin base length; second dorsal-fin base length 13% of TL; color: plain dusky with fins and ventral snout somewhat darker, free rear tip of first dorsal fin marked white; each jaw with about 110-120 rows of very small tri- to multicuspidate teeth; monospondylous trunk vertebrae centra 50-52, diplospondylous precaudal centra 41, total centra about 115-140 (Ref. 92921).

The dwarf false catshark (Planonasus parini) is a species of ground shark, which lives in the Indian Ocean near Socotra. This species is one of two known members of its genus, the other being the pygmy false catshark off the coast of India, Sri Lanka, and the Maldives. The pygmy false catshark is very closely related to the dwarf false catshark, but has some morphological differences. Two examples are its absence of an oral papillae and that it has more tooth rows in the lower jaw.