Pinocchio Catshark

This species has the following characters: flattened prenarial snout, apparently longer than interorbital width; furrows of upper labial much longer than the lower ones; pectoral fin widely expanding posteriorly, with outer margin a little longer than P1-P2 space; short abdomen, P1-P2 space narrower than preorbital length or anal fin base length; origin of first dorsal-fin just above or slightly anterior to pelvic-fin insertion; 50–64 and 48–68 tooth rows on upper and lower jaws, respectively; teeth with 5 or more cusps, including the anterior ones; egg capsule with no coiled tendrils on anterior and posterior ends, posterior end tapering toward tip; color preserved in alcohol is uniformly pale brownish to light greyish, sometimes light yellowish brown; the dorsal side of body is a little darker than ventral side (Ref. 76943).

The Pinocchio catshark (Apristurus australis) is a species of catshark in the family Scyliorhinidae found in Australia and possibly New Zealand. Its natural habitat is the open seas. It belongs to a genus of poorly known deep-water sharks. Very little is known of its biology. Possibly a widely distributed deep-water catshark found along the Australian continental slope at depths of 590 to 1,000 m, it consists of several distinct populations which may be separate species. Although part of the distribution includes heavily fished areas, particularly off southeastern Australia, much of its range is in unfished areas. Given the taxonomic uncertainty of the separate populations, it is not possible to assess the conservation status of this species at this time. However, deep-water demersal trawl fisheries are expanding in the region, and the situation should be reassessed following taxonomic clarification.