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The porbeagle, Lamna nasus, is a pelagic predatory shark
Shark

Sharks are a type of fish with a full Cartilage skeleton and a highly Streamlines, streaklines and pathlinesd body. They respire with the use of five to seven gill slits....
 of the family
Family (biology)

In biological classification, family is a taxonomic rank. Exact details of formal nomenclature depend on the Nomenclature Codes which applies....
 Lamnidae
Lamnidae

Lamnidae is a family of sharks, commonly known as mackerel sharks or white sharks. They are large, fast-swimming sharks, found in oceans worldwide....
. The porbeagle is considered vulnerable to extinction, and the European Union
European Union

The European Union is an economic and political union of 27 European Union member state, located primarily in Europe. It was established by the Treaty of Maastricht on 1 November 1993 upon the foundations of the pre-existing European Economic Community....
 has proposed listing the porbeagle under the United Nations Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES).

origins of the name porbeagle are unknown. One suggestion is a combination of "porpoise
Porpoise

Porpoises are small cetaceans of the family Phocoenidae; they are related to whales and dolphins. They are distinct from dolphins, although the word "porpoise" has been used to refer to any small dolphin, especially by sailors and fishermen....
" and "beagle
Beagle

The Beagle is a dog breed of small to medium-sized dog. A member of the Hound Group, it is similar in appearance to the Foxhound but smaller, with shorter legs and longer, softer ears....
", for it is fairly porpoise-like.






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The porbeagle, Lamna nasus, is a pelagic predatory shark
Shark

Sharks are a type of fish with a full Cartilage skeleton and a highly Streamlines, streaklines and pathlinesd body. They respire with the use of five to seven gill slits....
 of the family
Family (biology)

In biological classification, family is a taxonomic rank. Exact details of formal nomenclature depend on the Nomenclature Codes which applies....
 Lamnidae
Lamnidae

Lamnidae is a family of sharks, commonly known as mackerel sharks or white sharks. They are large, fast-swimming sharks, found in oceans worldwide....
. The porbeagle is considered vulnerable to extinction, and the European Union
European Union

The European Union is an economic and political union of 27 European Union member state, located primarily in Europe. It was established by the Treaty of Maastricht on 1 November 1993 upon the foundations of the pre-existing European Economic Community....
 has proposed listing the porbeagle under the United Nations Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES).

Naming

The origins of the name porbeagle are unknown. One suggestion is a combination of "porpoise
Porpoise

Porpoises are small cetaceans of the family Phocoenidae; they are related to whales and dolphins. They are distinct from dolphins, although the word "porpoise" has been used to refer to any small dolphin, especially by sailors and fishermen....
" and "beagle
Beagle

The Beagle is a dog breed of small to medium-sized dog. A member of the Hound Group, it is similar in appearance to the Foxhound but smaller, with shorter legs and longer, softer ears....
", for it is fairly porpoise-like. The Oxford English Dictionary attributes its first appearance to a Cornish
Cornwall

Cornwall , constitutional Duchy and palatine, is a metropolitan and non-metropolitan counties of England of England, United Kingdom, located at the tip of the south-western peninsula of Great Britain....
 dialect. It is possible it is derived from two old French words meaning hog and nose. The Greek lamna means shark and nasus means nose.

Distribution

The porbeagle's distribution ranges from the northeastern coast of North America
North America

North America is the northern continent of the Americas, situated in the Earth's northern hemisphere and almost totally in the western hemisphere....
, from New Jersey
New Jersey

New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic States and Northeastern United States regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north by New York, on the east by the Hudson River and the Atlantic Ocean, on the southwest by Delaware, and on the west by Pennsylvania....
 to Greenland
Greenland

Greenland is a member country of the Kingdom of Denmark located between the Arctic Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago....
 and from the northwestern coast of Africa
Africa

Africa is the world's second-largest and second most-populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km? including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area....
, Morocco
Morocco

Morocco , officially the Kingdom of Morocco , is a country located in North Africa with a population of nearly 34 million and an area just under 447,000 km2....
 or Western Sahara
Western Sahara

Western Sahara is a territory of North Africa, bordered by Morocco to the north, Algeria in the northeast, Mauritania to the east and south, and the Atlantic Ocean on the west....
 and the Mediterranean, and up to the waters off Iceland
Iceland

Iceland, officially the Republic of Iceland , is an island country located in the North Atlantic Ocean between mainland Europe and Greenland....
 to the north coast of Norway
Norway

Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a constitutional monarchy in Northern Europe that occupies the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula....
 and the northwestern coast of Russia
Russia

Russia , or the Russian Federation , is a list of countries spanning more than one continent country extending over much of northern Eurasia....
. In the southern hemisphere its distribution is circumglobal from 30°
30th parallel south

The 30th parallel south is a circle of latitude that is 30 degree south of the Earth equator.Starting at the Prime Meridian and heading eastwards, the parallel 30? south passes through:...
 to 60° south
60th parallel south

The 60th parallel south is a circle of latitude that is 60 degree south of the Earth equator.The parallel marks the northern limit of the Southern Ocean....
.

The porbeagle is listed as "Vulnerable" on the IUCN (World Conservation Union) Red List
IUCN Red List

The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species , created in 1963, is the world's most comprehensive inventory of the global Conservation movement status of plant and animal species....
 of Threatened Species. Canada
Canada

Canada is a country occupying most of northern North America, extending from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west and northward into the Arctic Ocean....
 also lists the porbeagle as an endangered species overfishing has recently decimated numbers in British
Great Britain

Great Britain is an island lying to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the List of islands by area, and the largest in Europe. With a population of 58.9 million people it is List of islands by population....
 waters.

Habitat

The porbeagle is mainly a pelagic shark, but can be found in coastal waters. It lives in cold water commonly from about 5°C to 10°C (41°F to 50°F), but have been found down to 1°C (33°F) and up to 23°C (71°F). It can be found at the surface and to a depth of more than 700 metres.

Anatomy and appearance

The most distinguishing characteristic of the porbeagle is a white patch on the trailing edge of the dorsal fin
Dorsal fin

A wikt:dorsal fin is a fin located on the backs of some fish, whales, dolphins, and porpoises, as well as the ichthyosaurs. Its main purpose is to stabilize the animal against rolling and assist in sudden turns....
. This distinguishes it from all other sharks in its family. It has two keels on the caudal fin, in common with the salmon shark.

The porbeagle is a stout and heavy shark, dark blue-grey on top and white underneath, with a conical snout. The porbeagle can grow to about 3.7 m (12 ft), weighing about 160 to 250 kg (350 to 550 lb).

Behaviour

The porbeagle is among the fastest sharks. It can jump fully out of the water, a behavior observed in only a few sharks. Porbeagles are unique in that they have been known to play tag with other porbeagles, pass around seaweed to other porbeagles, and toss driftwood out of the water in a manner similar to dolphins.

Diet

The porbeagle is an opportunistic feeder, it eats mostly bony fish like mackerel
Mackerel

Mackerel is a common name applied to a number of different species of fish, mostly, but not exclusively, from the family Scombridae. They occur in all tropical and temperate seas....
, herring
Herring

Herring are small, oily fish of the genus Clupea found in the shallow, temperate waters of the North Pacific Ocean and the North Atlantic Ocean, including the Baltic Sea....
, lancetfish
Lancetfish

Lancetfishes are large oceanic predatory fishes in the genus Alepisaurus , the only living genus in the family Alepisauridae.Lancetfishes grow up to in length....
 and sauries.

Reproduction

The porbeagle is ovoviviparous
Ovoviviparity

Ovoviviparous, also known as oviviparous, animals develop within Egg s that remain within the mother's body up until they hatch or are about to hatch....
. Gestation period is about 8 to 9 months. Litters of up to 6 pups have been recorded but the normal size is about 4. Pups are about 60 to 80 cm long when born. Female porbeagles reaches sexual maturity at about 12 to 13 years and males at 7 to 8 years.

Footnotes


External links