Deania calcea

    The Birdbeak dogfish, known to science as Deania calcea, is a species of deep sea squaliform that reaches a maximum known size of around 130cm long, and has a wide yet specific distribution on the world's continents, being found in places such as New Zealand, Japan, Chile, South Africa and in the stretch of the Atlantic Ocean's coast between Iceland and Morocco. Like many deep sea sharks, D. calcea has deficient data on much of it's behavior, but due to it's range and the accidental capture of this species as bycatch, there are some things we know about this species more than other species of dogfish. In 2011, Paiva et.al found evidence of matrotrophy as a strategy for it's reproduction, through the analysis of the mercury (Hg) transfer between the female and the babies outside of the eggs; essentially, D. calcea is ovoviviparous! In 2013, Dunn et.al described the diet of this species in New Zealand waters, along with other species of sharks commonly caught between depths of 200-1200m. The diet of D. calcea consists of mesopelagic bony fish and invertebrates, the later being represented on this very illustration by Oplophorus novaezeelandiae, one of it's confirmed prey items. Both papers will be linked below!