Odontaspis ferox ( Risso, 1810 )

Ebert, David A., Wintner, Sabine P. & Kyne, Peter M., 2021, An annotated checklist of the chondrichthyans of South Africa, Zootaxa 4947 (1), pp. 1-127 : 40

Odontaspis ferox ( Risso, 1810)

Smalltooth Sand Tiger Shark

Squalus ferox Risso, 1810: 38 . Holotype unknown; type locality off Nice , France, in the Mediterranean Sea.

Local synonymy: Odontaspis herbsti: Bass et al., 1975c: 10 , fig. 6. Odontaspis ferox: Smith, 1975: 12 ; Compagno, 1984a: 219, fig.; Bass, 1986: 98, fig. 14.1, pl. 1; Compagno et al., 1989: 40, pl.; Compagno, 1999: 118; Compagno, 2001: 64, fig. 55; Heemstra & Heemstra, 2004: 74; Compagno et al., 2005: 176, fig., pl. 27; Ebert, 2013: 146, fig. 182; Ebert et al., 2013 a: 218, fig., pl. 25; Ebert & Mostada, 2013: 13, fig.; Ebert & Dando, 2014: 63, fig.; Ebert & van Hees, 2015: 145; Compagno, 2016: 1125; Weigmann, 2016: 852.

South Africa voucher material: SAIAB 6234 [former ORI 2341], SAIAB 6265 [former ORI 2396], SAIAB 6926.

South African distribution: KZN coast to at least Port Shepstone, and possibly off the Transkei coast (EC).

Remarks: Occasionally taken off the KZN coast, a few dozen specimens were landed during a short-lived deepsea fishery off Port Shepstone that also landed Dalatias licha and Mitsukurina owstoni among other deep-sea species (D.A. Ebert & P.D. Cowley, unpubl. data). The species is known to occasionally venture into shallow water, but to date no known records have been caught by the KZN Sharks Board. The first confirmed records of this species were from off Durban in October 1966, February 1968, and April 1972.

Conservation status: VU (2016).