dogfish

Open encyclopedia reference

The small-spotted catshark (Scyliorhinus canicula), also known as the sandy dogfish, lesser-spotted dogfish, rough-hound or morgay (in Scotland and Cornwall), is a catshark of the family Scyliorhinidae. It is found on the continental shelves and the uppermost continental slopes off the coasts of Norway and the British Isles south to Senegal and in the Mediterranean, between latitudes 63° N and 12° N. It can grow up to a length of 1 m (3 ft 3 in), and it can weigh more than 2 kg (4.4 lb). It is found primarily over sandy, gravelly, or muddy bottoms from depths of a few metres down to 400 m (1,310 ft). S. canicula is one of the most abundant elasmobranchs in the northeast Atlantic and Mediterranean Sea. The majority of the populations are stable in most areas.

Wikipedia contributors, Small-spotted catshark; see linked history · CC BY-SA 4.0 . Plain-text lead excerpt, at most 180 words; no infobox or later sections Retrieved 2026-10-05T02:28:21.817136+00:00. This reference remains separate from the taxonomic record.

Identity & source status

Scientific name

Scyliorhinus canicula (Linnaeus, 1758)

Name authority

(Linnaeus, 1758)

Common name

dogfish

Rank

species

Accepted status

accepted

Kingdom

Animalia

Phylum

Chordata

Class

Elasmobranchii

Order

Carcharhiniformes

Family

Scyliorhinidae

Genus

Scyliorhinus

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.

1. domainEukaryota (Chatton, 1925) Whittaker & Margulis, 1978
2. kingdomAnimalia
3. phylumChordata
4. subphylumVertebrata
5. infraphylumGnathostomata
6. parvphylumChondrichthyes
7. classElasmobranchii
8. subclassNeoselachii
9. infraclassSelachii
10. superorderGaleomorphi
11. orderCarcharhiniformes
12. familyScyliorhinidae Gill, 1862
13. genusScyliorhinus Blainville, 1816
14. speciesScyliorhinus canicula (Linnaeus, 1758)

Close classified relatives

These entries share the source’s genus, Scyliorhinus. They are not necessarily the closest relatives established by molecular evidence.

Browse 46 records assigned to Scyliorhinidae.

Names & synonyms

Names explicitly linked to this accepted taxon in the source. Synonymy can change with revision.

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.

1. https://www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=105814 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.

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:4W56Z. Classification follows source parent identifiers. English common names may vary by region.