page_title: Smooth lanternshark
section_title: Taxonomy and phylogeny
hierarchical_section_title: Smooth lanternshark / Taxonomy and phylogeny
caption_attribution_description: Etmopterus pusillus
context_page_description: The smooth lanternshark or slender lanternshark is a species of dogfish shark in the family Etmopteridae, found widely in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. It inhabits benthic environments at a depth of 274–1,000 m, and pelagic environments at a depth of 0–708 m. The smooth lanternshark forms a species group with the larger blurred lanternshark, both of which are distinguished from other members of their family by small, irregularly arranged dermal denticles with a truncated shape. This species has a slender, dark brown body with an indistinct black band on the sides over the pelvic fins, and reaches 50 cm in length. This slow-growing, ovoviviparous shark feeds on smaller squid, fishes, and fish eggs. Smooth lanternsharks are often caught as bycatch in eastern Atlantic and Japanese commercial fisheries. The International Union for Conservation of Nature has evaluated this species as of Least Concern because of its wide distribution and limited threats.
context_section_description: The first scientific description of the smooth lanternshark, as Acanthidium pusillum, was published by British biologist Richard Thomas Lowe, in an 1839 issue of the scientific journal Transactions of the Zoological Society of London. This species was later moved to the genus Etmopterus. The specific epithet pusillus means "weak" in Latin. The smooth lanternshark forms a species group with the blurred lanternshark (E. bigelowi); these two species are distinguished from other lantern sharks by their irregularly arranged, truncated (ending in a flat crown as though the tip were cut off) dermal denticles.
caption: Early illustration of a smooth lanternshark, from A history of the fishes of Madeira (1843).
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