Smalltooth Cookiecutter Shark

Scientific name: Isistius brasiliensis
Smalltooth Cookiecutter Shark, Isistius brasiliensis Click to enlarge image
Teeth of a Smalltooth Cookiecutter Shark caught in an Isaacs-Kidd midwater trawl, east of Fiji, March 2013. The small pointed teeth in the upper jaw and large triangular teeth in the lower jaw allow the fish to 'carve' out pieces of muscle from its prey. Image: Michael Miller
© Michael Miller

Fast Facts

  • Classification
    Genus
    Isistius
    Species
    brasiliensis
    Family
    Dalatiidae
    Order
    Squaliformes
    Class
    Chondrichthyes
    Subphylum
    Vertebrata
    Phylum
    Chordata
    Kingdom
    Animalia
  • Size Range
    It grows to about 50 cm in length

Introduction

The Smalltooth Cookiecutter Shark is named after the cookie-shaped wounds that it leaves on the bodies of larger animals. It attaches itself to its prey with its suctorial lips, and then spins to cut out a cookie-shaped plug of flesh from the larger animal.

What do Smalltooth Cookiecutter Sharks look like?

Identification

This species has small, erect teeth in the upper jaw and large triangular teeth in the lower jaw. The appropriately named Largetooth Cookiecutter Shark, is the second species in the genus Isistius. The two species can be separated by tooth numbers, colouration and fin positions.

Isistius brasiliensis
Smalltooth Cookiecutter Shark, Isistius brasiliensis
Cookie-cutter Shark, Isistius brasiliensis - x-ray
Smalltooth Cookiecutter Shark, Isistius brasiliensis

Where do Smalltooth Cookiecutter Sharks live?

Habitat

They vertically migrate, being found in deep water, probably below 1000 m during the day, and migrating into surface waters at night.

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Distribution

Cookiecutter Sharks are recorded from scattered localities around the world. In Australia they have been recorded from Queensland, New South Wales, Tasmania and Western Australia.

The map below shows the Australian distribution of the species based on public sightings and specimens in Australian Museums. Click on the map for detailed information. Source: Atlas of Living Australia.

What do Smalltooth Cookiecutter Sharks eat?

Feeding and diet

The Smalltooth Cookiecutter Shark attaches itself to its prey with its suctorial lips, and then spins to cut out a cookie-shaped plug of flesh. Many species show evidence of attacks , including White Sharks.

Bigeye Tuna
The Cookiecutter Shark is named after the cookie-shaped wounds that it leaves on the bodies of its prey. This image shows wounds on the side of a Bigeye Tuna. Image: Marta Eusebio
© Marta Eusebio
Cookiecutter Shark Yellowfin Tuna, Thunnus albacares
The Cookiecutter Shark is named after the cookie-shaped wounds that it leaves on the bodies of its prey. This image shows wounds on the side of a Yellowfin Tuna. A Yellowfin Tuna purchased from Sydney Fish Market by Dr Kevin Rowling, 20 June 2010 (AMS I.45217-001) Image: M. Eusebio, Mark McGrouther
© Australian Museum

Widder (1998) suggested that the feeding behaviour of the Smalltooth Cookiecutter Shark may be even stranger than originally thought. The fish is counterilluminated - the ventral light organs making the fish appear darker above and lighter below.

The dark-pigmented collar is not illuminated, so would appear silhouetted against the light from above. The theory suggests that this dark area would look like a small fish from below, and the Smalltooth Cookiecutter Shark would wait for a larger predator to attack the "small fish". As the predator is about to attack, the Smalltooth Cookiecutter Shark would turn and attack the attacker. The forward motion of the larger animal may even assist the Smalltooth Cookiecutter Shark in removing a plug of flesh.

Leopard Seal with Cookiecutter Shark bite

Leopard Seal with Cookiecutter Shark bite

Image: Martin Lange
© Martin Lange

Are Smalltooth Cookiecutter Sharks dangerous?

Danger to humans

In their 2011 paper (see references, below), Honebrink and colleagues describe the first documented attack on a live human by a Cookiecutter Shark.

References

  1. Compagno, L.J.V. 1984. FAO species catalogue. Vol. 4, Sharks of the World. An annotated and illustrated catalogue of shark species known to date. Part 1 - Hexanchiformes to Lamniformes: viii, 1-250.
  2. Gadig, O.B.F. & U.L. Gomes. 2002. First report on embryos of Isistius brasiliensis. Journal of Fish Biology. 60: 1322-1325.
  3. Honebrink, R., Buch, R., Galpin, P., & G. Burgess. 2011. First Documented Attack on a Live Human by a Cookiecutter Shark (Squaliformes, Dalatiidae: Isistius sp.). Pacific Science. 65(3): 365-374.
  4. Last, P.R. & J.D. Stevens. 1994. Sharks and Rays of Australia. CSIRO. Pp. 513, Pl. 1-84.
  5. McGrouther, M.A. 1994. Cookie Cutter Capers. Muse. Australian Museum News and Events. Dec - Jan: 4,11.
  6. Papastamatiou Y.P., Wetherbee, B.M., O’Sullivan, J., Goodmanlowe, G.D. & C.G. Lowe. 2010. Foraging ecology of Cookiecutter Sharks (Isistius brasiliensis) on pelagic fishes in Hawaii, inferred from prey bite wounds. Environmental Biology of Fishes. 88: 361-368.
  7. Widder, E.A. 1998. A predatory use of counterillumination by the squaloid shark, Isistius brasiliensis. Environmental Biology of Fishes. 53: 267-273.