Pacific sleeper shark | |
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Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Chondrichthyes |
Subclass: | Elasmobranchii |
Subdivision: | Selachimorpha |
Order: | Squaliformes |
Family: | Somniosidae |
Genus: | Somniosus |
Species: | S. pacificus
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Binomial name | |
Somniosus pacificus | |
Range of the Pacific sleeper shark |
The Pacific sleeper shark (Somniosus pacificus) is a sleeper shark of the family Somniosidae, found in the North Pacific on continental shelves and slopes in Arctic and temperate waters between latitudes 70°N and 22°N and in at least two places in the western tropical Pacific near Palau and the Solomon Islands, from the surface to 2,000 metres (6,600 ft) deep.[1][2] The first evidence of the sharks in the western tropical Pacific emerged from a National Geographic video taken near the Solomon Islands in 2015.[3] Its length is up to 4.4 m (14 ft), although it could possibly reach lengths in excess of 7 m (23 ft).[2]