Age Assessment of Black Dogfish (Centroscyllium fabricii) and Great Lanternshark (Etmopterus princeps)
2020
Ása Guðmundsdóttir 1998- | Háskóli Íslands
Scarce information is available about many deep-sea shark species, especially regarding suitable methods for age assessment. In this study, I attempted to age two species of the family Etmopteridae; the Black Dogfish (Centroscyllium fabricii) and the Great Lanternshark (Etmopterus princeps). As sharks are generally known to form annual growth bands on dorsal fin spines and/or vertebrae these were used in order to estimate age in years. Fifteen vertebrae belonging to two specimens of C. fabricii and one specimen of E. princeps were examined, along with fin spines from 1997 to 1998, mainly from C. fabricii. A total of 18 individuals were aged using anal fin spines, ranging between 32 and 65 years. Statistically significant correlations were found between estimated age and total length, and anal spine length and total length. Results from the study suggest the need for reliable prior knowledge to confirm accuracy of estimated ages, and the development of more suitable ageing methods to use in these species.
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