Darkie Charlie
Dalatias licha (Bonnaterre, 1788)
Accepted species in Catalogue of Life’s 11 September 2026 base release. This preserves the source classification and available supporting data; it is not a completed species monograph.
Open encyclopedia reference
The kitefin shark or seal shark (Dalatias licha) is a species of squaliform shark in the family Dalatiidae, and the type species in its genus. It is found sporadically around the world, usually close to the sea floor at depths of 200–600 m (660–1,970 ft). With a sizable oil-filled liver to maintain neutral buoyancy, this shark is able to cruise slowly through the water while expending little energy. The kitefin shark, the largest luminous vertebrate on record, has a slender body with a very short, blunt snout, large eyes, and thick lips. Its teeth are highly differentiated between the upper and lower jaws, with the upper teeth small and narrow and the lower teeth large, triangular, and serrated. Its typical length is 1.0–1.4 m (3.3–4.6 ft), though examples as long as 5.9 ft (180 cm) have been encountered. Armed with large teeth and a strong bite, the kitefin shark is a powerful, solitary predator that takes many different types of prey, ranging from bony fishes, sharks and rays, to cephalopods, crustaceans, polychaete worms, siphonophores, and possibly carrion.
Wikipedia contributors, Kitefin shark; see linked history · CC BY-SA 4.0 . Plain-text lead excerpt, at most 180 words; no infobox or later sections Retrieved 2026-10-05T04:10:09.801639+00:00. This reference remains separate from the taxonomic record.
Identity & source status
- Scientific name
- Dalatias licha (Bonnaterre, 1788)
- Name authority
- (Bonnaterre, 1788)
- Common name
- Darkie Charlie
- Rank
- species
- Accepted status
- accepted
- Kingdom
- Animalia
- Phylum
- Chordata
- Class
- Elasmobranchii
- Order
- Squaliformes
- Family
- Dalatiidae
- Genus
- Dalatias
- Extinction status
- Not supplied by this source
Source habitat flags: Marine: yes · Freshwater: no · Terrestrial: no. These do not form a complete habitat description.
Classification family tree
Nested taxonomic groups from the source. This is not a direct-ancestor chain, a dated evolutionary tree or a phylogenetic reconstruction.
- domainEukaryota (Chatton, 1925) Whittaker & Margulis, 1978
- kingdomAnimalia
- phylumChordata
- subphylumVertebrata
- infraphylumGnathostomata
- parvphylumChondrichthyes
- classElasmobranchii
- subclassNeoselachii
- infraclassSelachii
- superorderSqualomorphi
- orderSqualiformes Compagno, 1973
- familyDalatiidae Gray, 1851
- genusDalatias Rafinesque, 1810
- speciesDalatias licha (Bonnaterre, 1788)
Close classified relatives
No other member of this genus is present in the selected snapshot.
Names & synonyms
Names explicitly linked to this accepted taxon in the source. Synonymy can change with revision.
| Recorded name | Source status |
|---|---|
| Dalatias lica (Bonnaterre, 1788) (Bonnaterre, 1788) | synonym |
| Dalatias lichia (Bonnaterre, 1788) (Bonnaterre, 1788) | synonym |
| Dalatias sparophagus Rafinesque, 1810 Rafinesque, 1810 | synonym |
| Scymnorhinus brevipinnis Smith, 1936 Smith, 1936 | synonym |
| Scymnorhinus licha (Bonnaterre, 1788) (Bonnaterre, 1788) | synonym |
| Scymnus aquitanensis de la Pylaie, 1835 de la Pylaie, 1835 | synonym |
| Squalus nicaeensis Risso, 1810 Risso, 1810 | synonym |
| Pseudoscymnus boshuensis Herre, 1935 Herre, 1935 | synonym |
| Scymnus vulgaris Cloquet, 1822 Cloquet, 1822 | synonym |
| Scymnorhinus phillippsi Whitley, 1931 Whitley, 1931 | synonym |
| Dalatias tachiensis Shen & Ting, 1972 Shen & Ting, 1972 | synonym |
| Squalus americanus Gmelin, 1789 Gmelin, 1789 | ambiguous synonym |
| Squalus licha Bonnaterre, 1788 Bonnaterre, 1788 | synonym |
| Squalus scymnus Voigt, 1832 Voigt, 1832 | synonym |
Source literature & publication evidence
References attached to this source record, including nomenclatural citations where supplied. This is a selected bibliography; abbreviated citations remain in the source’s form.
- https://www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=105910 Source fields: Taxon.tsv dwc:namePublishedIn, Taxon.tsv dcterms:references
Origins, evidence & remaining research
Name authority and publication references document nomenclature where the source supplies it. They do not establish evolutionary origins or the earliest fossil occurrence.
Specimen-level evidence, morphology, ecological research, phylogenetic studies, a comprehensive bibliography and a located literary passage have not yet been compiled for this record. A suitable sourced image remains to be added.
Dataset citation & attribution
This exact taxon in ChecklistBank · Catalogue of Life 2026-09-11
Catalogue of Life 2026-09-11; dataset 316321; doi:10.48580/dgz5n. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ . Retrieved 5 October 2026.
Stable key: col:33YT6. Classification follows source parent identifiers. English common names may vary by region.