Bramble Shark, Echinorhinus brucus (Bonnaterre 1788)


Other Names: Spinous Shark

The dried holotype of Echinorhinuc mccoyi - a junior synonym of Echinorhinus brucus. Source: Museums Victoria. License: CC by Attribution

Summary:

A large flabby grey, brownish or blackish deep-water shark, beoming paler below, with darker fin margins, and large, thorn-like dermal denticles scattered over the body. The spineless dorsal fins are smaller than the pelvic fins, the species lacks an anal fin and the caudal fin lacks a subterminal notch.


Cite this page as:
Bray, D.J. 2022, Echinorhinus brucus in Fishes of Australia, accessed 29 Mar 2024, https://fishesofaustralia.net.au/home/species/2011

Bramble Shark, Echinorhinus brucus (Bonnaterre 1788)

More Info


Distribution

Off Coffs Harbour, New South Wales, to the Great Australian Bight, South Australia. The species is found worldwide, although with a patchy distribution. The Bramble Shark lives on or near the bottom on the continental shelf and slope, usually at depths of 400–900 m, but sometimes found over the continental shelf.

Features

Upper jaw teeth 20–26; Lower jaw teeth 21–26.

Body robust, streamlined; caudal peduncle without keels; precaudal pits present. Head conical; snout short (length to mouth approx. 8% TL), bluntly rounded; eyes small; nostrils not connected to mouth by groove; spiracles minute; mouth about half as high as broad; labial furrows confined to corners of mouth; teeth small, similar in both jaws, each with large major cusp flanked by one or two minor cusps on each side, main cusps sharply pointed, smooth-edged, outwardly oblique; five relatively large gill slits in front of pectoral fin.

Body covered in large, prominent shield-like dermal denticles (up to 1.5 cm or more in basal diameter) bearing central spines, sparsely and irregularly distributed; adults with noticeable denticles under snout and around mouth; lateral line noticeably distinct as white furrow from above gill slits to tip of tail.

Two dorsal fins without spines, situated well back on body, sub-equal in size, brush- shaped, origin of first dorsal over anterior third of pelvic-fin base; interspace between dorsal fins approx. 80% length of first dorsal base; anal fin absent; caudal fin scythe-shaped, without sub-terminal notch. Pectoral fins paddle-like. Pelvic fins much larger than dorsal fins.

Colour

Dark purplish greyish to brown above,  with whitish denticles, and sometimes with dark spots; paler below.

Feeding

Feeds on deep-water bony fishes, sharks, crustaceans and squids.

Biology

Little is known of the biology of the Bramble Shark. It is aplacental viviparous (previously called ovoviviparous) - females give birth to live young and the developing embryos obtain their nutrients from an external yolk sac - there is no placenta.

Males mature ~150 cm TL and females mature at 200–220 cm TL. Litter sizes - 15–26 young, size-at-birth estimated at 40–50 cm TL.

Fisheries

Taken as both targeted and incidental catch across its range in demersal trawl, longline, and setnet fisheries. Bramble Sharks are retained for their liver oil, which is rich in squalene, and considered to be one of the most valuable of shark liver oil.

Etymology

The specific name is from the Latin brucus (= caterpillar), in reference to Le Brucus (= caterpillar, sea caterpillar), the local name for this species along the Atlantic Coast of France during the 18th century.

Species Citation

Squalus brucus Bonnaterre 1788, Tableau Encyclopédique et Méthodique des trois Règnes de la Nature. Ichthyologie. Paris:11. Type locality: 'The Ocean' (= Bayonne, Bay of Biscay, France, northeastern Atlantic Ocean).

Author

Bray, D.J. 2022

Resources

Atlas of Living Australia

Bramble Shark, Echinorhinus brucus (Bonnaterre 1788)

References


Akhilesh, K.V., Bineesh, K.K., White, W.T., Shanis, C.P.R., Hashim, M., Ganga, U. & Pillai, N.G.K. 2013 Catch composition, reproductive biology and diet of the bramble shark Echinorhinus brucus (Squaliformes: Echinorhinidae) from the south-eastern Arabian Sea. Journal of Fish Biology. https://doi.org/10.1111/jfb.12201

Bass, A.J., D’Aubrey, J.D. & Kistnasamy, N. 1976. Sharks of the east coast of southern Africa. VI. The families Oxynotidae, Squalidae, Dalatidae and Echinorhinidae. Oceanographic Research Institute Investigational Report 45: 1-103.

Bonnaterre, J.P. 1788. Tableau Encyclopédique et Méthodique des trois Règnes de la Nature. Ichthyologie. Paris. pp. 1-215, 102 pls

Compagno, L.J.V. 1984. FAO species catalogue. Vol. 4. Sharks of the world. An annotated and illustrated catalogue of shark species known to date. FAO Fisheries Synopsis No. 125, vol. 4.

Compagno, L.J.V., Dando, M. & Fowler, S. 2005. A Field Guide to the Sharks of the World. London : Collins 368 pp. 

Compagno, L.J.V. & Niem, V.H. 1998. Hexanchidae, Echinorhinidae, Squalidae. pp. 1208-1232 in Carpenter, K.E. & Niem, V.H. (eds). The Living Marine Resources of the Western Central Pacific. FAO Species Identification Guide for Fisheries Purposes. Rome : FAO Vol. 2 687-1396 pp. 

Finucci, B., Bineesh, K.K., Cheok, J., Cotton, C.F., Kulka, D.W., Neat, F.C., Pacoureau, N., Rigby, C.L., Tanaka, S. & Walker, T.I. 2020. Echinorhinus brucus. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2020: e.T41801A2956075. https://dx.doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.UK.2020-3.RLTS.T41801A2956075.en. Accessed on 13 July 2022.

Garman, S. 1913. The Plagiostomia (sharks, skates and rays). Memoirs of the Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University 36: 1-528 pls 1-77

Garrick, J.A.F. 1960. Studies on New Zealand Elasmobranchii. Part X. The genus Echinorhinus, with an account of a second species, E. cookei Pietschmann, 1928, from New Zealand waters. Transactions of the Royal Society of New Zealand 88(1): 105–117. See ref online

Georgeson, L., Rigby, C.R., Emery, T.J., Fuller, M., Hartog, J., Williams, A.J., Hobday, A.J., Duffy, C.A.J., Simpfendorfer, C.A., Okuda, T., Stobutzki, I.C. & Nicol, S.J. 2019. Ecological Risk Assessment for SPRFMO Deepwater Chondrichthyans. 7th Meeting of the Scientific Committee. South Pacific Regional Fisheries Management Organisation, La Havana, Cuba, 7 to 12 October 2019.

Gmelin, J.F. 1789. Pisces. pp. 1126-1516 in Linnaeus, C. (ed.) Systema Naturae. Leiden : Delamollière Vol. 1 Pt 3. (as Squalus spinosus, type locality Atlantic Ocean) See ref at BHL

Gray, J.E. 1851. List of the Specimens of Fish in the Collection of the British Museum. Chondropterygii. London : British Museum 160 pp., 2 pls.

Iglésias, S.P. & Mollen, F.H. 2020. L’histoire de la description du squale bouclé Echinorhinus brucus (Bonnaterre, 1788) (Echinorhinidae) et la redécouverte des illustrations du type perdu. Zoosystema 13: 173-193. https://doi.org/10.5252/zoosystema2020v42a13

Last, P.R. & Stevens, J.D. 1994. Sharks and Rays of Australia. Canberra : CSIRO Australia 513 pp. 84 pls. 

Last, P.R. & Stevens, J.D. 2009. Sharks and Rays of Australia. Collingwood : CSIRO Publishing Australia 2, 550 pp.

McCoy, F. 1887. Natural history of Victoria : Prodromus of the zoology of Victoria, or, figures and descriptions of the living species of all classes of the Victorian indigenous animals. Volume 2, Decades 15, pp. 157–191 pls 141–149 (as Echinorhinus spinosus) See ref at BHL

Musick, J.A. & McEachran, J.D. 1969. The squaloid shark Echinorhinus brucus off Virginia. Copeia 1969(1): 205–206. https://doi.org/10.2307/1441725

Silas, E.G. & Selvaraj, G.S.D. 1972. Descriptions of the adult and embryo of the bramble shark Echinorhinus brucus (Bonnaterre) obtained from the continental slope of India. Journal of the Marine Biological Association of India 14(1): 395–401.

Stead, D.G. 1963. Sharks and Rays of Australian Seas. Sydney : Angus & Robertson 211 pp. 63 figs. 

Stevens, J.D. 1994. Families Echinorhinidae, Squalidae, Oxynotidae, Parascyllidae, Orectolobidae. pp. 91-118 figs 28-73 in Gomon, M.F., Glover, C.J.M. & Kuiter, R.H. (eds). The Fishes of Australia's South Coast. Adelaide : State Printer 992 pp. 810 figs.

Stewart, A.L. 2015. 22 Family Echinorhinidae. pp. 120-122 in Roberts, C.D., Stewart, A.L. & Struthers, C.D. (eds). The Fishes of New Zealand. Wellington : Te Papa Press Vol. 2 pp. 1-576. 

Weigmann, S. 2016. Annotated checklist of the living sharks, batoids and chimaeras (Chondrichthyes) of the world, with a focus on biogeographical diversity. Journal of Fish Biology 88(3): 837-1037. 

White, W. 2008. Shark Families Heterodontidae to Pristiophoridae. pp. 32-100 in Gomon, M.F., Bray, D.J. & Kuiter, R.H. (eds). Fishes of Australia's Southern Coast. Sydney : Reed New Holland 928 pp. 

Whitley, G.P. 1931. New names for Australian fishes. The Australian Zoologist 6(4): 310-334 1 fig. pls 25-27 (described as Echinorhinus (Rubusqualus) mccoyi, type locality Portland Bay, Victoria). See ref at BHL  

Whitley, G.P. 1940. The Fishes of Australia. Part 1. The sharks, rays, devil-fish, and other primitive fishes of Australia and New Zealand. Sydney : Roy. Zool. Soc. N.S.W. 280 pp. 303 figs.

Quick Facts


CAAB Code:37022001

Conservation:IUCN Endangered

Depth:10-900 m

Habitat:Lives near the bottom

Max Size:3.1 m

Max Size:394 cm TL

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Species Maps

CAAB distribution map