Spotted Ratfish
Hydrolagus colliei
- Least concern
- Card rarity: Common
- Sharks and rays
The spotted ratfish is a chimaera found in the north-eastern Pacific Ocean. Often seen by divers at night in the Pacific Northwest, this cartilaginous fish gets its characteristic name from a pointed rat-like tail. The ratfish lays leathery egg cases on the bottom of muddy or sandy areas, which are often mistaken by divers as something inanimate. While mainly a deep-water species, it occurs at shallower depths in the northern part of its range. The generic name, Hydrolagus, comes from the Greek words ὕδωρ, meaning water, and λαγώς/λαγῶς, meaning hare, and the specific name honors Alexander Collie, who was a ship's surgeon and early naturalist who dissected the first specimen to be described during the voyage of HMS Blossom in the Pacific from 1825-28. The spotted ratfish is common in much of its range, not typically eaten by humans, and is not commercially caught.
Classification
- Class
- Chondrichthyes
- Order
- Chimaeriformes
- Family
- Chimaeridae
- Genus
- Hydrolagus