Kingdom Animalia Subclass Elasmobranchii Family Dalatiidae Higher classification Dalatiidae | Phylum Chordata Order Squaliformes Scientific name Isistius Rank Genus | |
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Lower classifications Cookiecutter shark, Largetooth cookiecutter shark, South China cookiecut | ||
Isistius is a genus of dogfish sharks in the family Dalatiidae. They are commonly known as cookiecutter sharks. Members of the genus are known for their unusual behaviour and dentition.
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Species
Habits
The cookiecutter sharks, or cigar sharks, are unusual in the manner in which they replace their teeth. Instead of replacing teeth singly as they get damaged or lost, for example in hunting, such sharks replace the whole set. They can repeat such replacement throughout their lifetimes.
Cookiecutter sharks often attack large shoals of fish, but have been known to circle fishing vessels to get an easy meal. They are particularly notorious for biting small chunks off of a prey animal in passing. Large prey, such as swordfish and cetaceans, may bear several healed wounds from such bites.
Weaker prey may be injured enough to be weakened until they are unable to swim properly. They then are prone to sinking, enabling these sharks to gorge. Isistius species can eat half of their own body weight at a time.
In unusual circumstances, cookiecutter sharks have been known to attack humans if they find them in their hunting grounds, and reports of their killing humans have been made; they circle them in great numbers while stripping their flesh.
