Overview

Roughsharks look more like deepwater curiosities than classic shark icons, with a high-backed silhouette and tall spiny dorsals. PocketShark should treat them as distinctive but still poorly known slope specialists. Roughsharks have a strangely compressed, high-backed body, very tall sail-like dorsal fins with spines, and skin that feels rough to the touch. Roughsharks occur patchily in temperate and subtropical deep waters, chiefly along continental slopes.

They are deep benthic sharks of slope habitats, often on or near muddy or mixed bottoms.

Added from the World Register of Marine Species (WoRMS).

Why it matters: Their almost triangular body shape is unlike that of nearly any other shark family.

Common nameOxynotus Bruniensis
Scientific nameOxynotus bruniensis
FamilyOxynotidae
OrderSqualiformes
Max length0.7 m
Depth range0 to 0 meters
RegionNew Zealand, New Zealand EEZ
DietData not available in this offline release.
HabitatMarine waters (habitat data not available locally).
Why it stands outFamily: Oxynotidae

What this shark is

Roughsharks have a strangely compressed, high-backed body, very tall sail-like dorsal fins with spines, and skin that feels rough to the touch.

Where it lives

Roughsharks occur patchily in temperate and subtropical deep waters, chiefly along continental slopes.

They are deep benthic sharks of slope habitats, often on or near muddy or mixed bottoms.

How it differs from similar sharks

Family: Oxynotidae

Compare it against Oxynotus Caribbaeus, angular rough-shark, and sailfin rough-shark.

Why it is notable

Encounters with people are very rare. Deepwater fisheries bycatch is the main concern.

Species-level taxonomy was verified from Sharkipedia's current species list and taxonomy workbook. In this pass, the narrative fields are cautious family-level placeholders synthesized from broad shark references, chiefly the FAO Sharks of the World catalogue, because a stronger multi-source species-level synthesis was not assembled here without risking invented detail. Replace this with a direct species-level synthesis before publication in the app.

Related shark pages

These links are meant to help readers continue through related species, not force extra clicks.

Historic angular roughshark reference image showing the high triangular body and large dorsal spines; not to scale.
Oxynotus centrina

angular rough-shark

Common name: Angular roughshark

Shark species in Oxynotidae.

1.5 m max