Lamnidae

Diagnostic Features:

  • Head long but shorter than trunk
  • Snout long, pointed, conical
  • Eyes moderately large
  • Large mouth
  • Gill openings extending to surface of head
  • First dorsal high, large, erect
  • Second dorsal and anal fins tiny
  • Pectorals large and narrow
  • Pelvic fins smaller than dorsal but larger than anal fins
  • Caudal lunate with upper lobe longer than second lobe
  • Peduncle depressed with strong keels

Habitat and Distribution:

  • Tropical to cold-temperate
  • Active swimmers
  • Continental and insular waters
  • Surf line to outer shelves
  • Not past 1280 m deep

Reproduction:

  • Ovoviviparous
  • Non-placental
  • Believed to be intrauterine cannibals
  • Very little known
  • Reproductive cycles from 1 to 3 years

Food:

  • Sharks
  • Whale carcasses
  • Rays
  • Marine birds and reptiles
  • Teleosts
  • Marine Mammals
  • Squids

Predators:

  • Orcas
  • Larger sharks
  • Humans

Extinct relatives:

  • Carcharodon megalodon
  • Late Pliocene
  • 13 m long, approx. 50 tons

Genera:

  • Carcharodon
  • Species: C. carcharias vulnerable
  • Unique: Teeth serrated, uppers flat with triangular cusps
  • Human interest: big game fish, taken in as bycatch, meat eaten fresh, salted, and smoked, oil for vitamins, skin for leather, fin for shark-fin soup, jaws for ornament
  • Isurus
  • Species:
  • I. oxyrinchus low risk/near threatened shortfin mako
  • I. paucus vulnerable longfin mako
  • Unique: No cusplets on teeth, first dorsal behind pectorals, second dorsal in front of anal fin origin
  • Human interest: prize game fish due sport and high quality meat, numerous fisheries, oil used for vitamins, fins for shark-fin soup, skin for leather, jaws for ornaments, meat eaten fresh, frozen, salted, smoked, and dried
  • Lamna
  • Species:
  • L. ditropis data deficientsalmon
  • L. nasus vulnerable porbeagle
  • Unique: Lateral cusplets on teeth, first dorsal over pectorals, second dorsal over anal fin origin, secondary keel on caudal
  • Human interest: fished in North Pacific, skin used for leather, oil from liver, fins for shark-fin soup, meat eaten in Japan, Alaska and California

Articles:

-Cassoff, RM, Campana, SE, and Myklevoll, S. (2007). Changes in baseline growth and maturation parameters of Northwest Atlantic porbeagle, Lamna nasus, following heavy exploitation. Canadian J of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences64 (1): 19-29.

-Donley, JA, Shadwick, RE, Sepulveda, CA, Konstantinidis, P, and Gemballa, S. (2005). Patterns of red muscle strain/activation and body kinematics during steady swimming in a lamnid shark, the shortfin mako (Isurus oxyrinchus). J of Exp Bio 208 (12): 2377-2387.

-Saidi, B, Bradai, MN, Bouain, A, Guelorget, O, and Capape, C. (2005). Capture of a pregnant female white shark, Carcharodon carcharias (Lamnidae) in the Gulf of Gabes (southern Tunisia, Central Mediterranean) with comments on oophagy in sharks. Cybium29 (3): 303-307.

-Weng, KC, Boustany, AM, Pyle, P, Anderson, SD, Brown, A, and Block, BA. (2007). Migration and habitat of white sharks (Carcharodon carcharias) in the eastern Pacific Ocean. Marine Biology152 (4): 877-894.

-Wilga, CD. (2005). Morphology and evolution of the jaw suspension in lamniform sharks. J of Morphology265 (1): 102-119.