Velvet belly
Etmopterus spinax (Linnaeus, 1758)
Status not recordedsharks and rays
The velvet belly (Etmopterus spinax) is a species in the family Etmopteridae, order Squaliformes.
No freely licensed photo yet
Quick facts about the velvet belly
- Weight
- Not recorded
- Length
- Not recorded
- Lifespan
- Not recorded
- Main food
- Not recorded
- Habitat
- Not recorded
- Young per litter or clutch
- Not recorded
- Conservation status
- Not recorded
- Countries on record
- Not recorded
Where does the velvet belly live?
Not recorded
Is the velvet belly endangered?
No conservation assessment is recorded for this species in our sources. That is not the same as being safe: it has not been matched to an assessment.
How is the velvet belly classified?
- kingdomAnimalia
- phylumChordata
- classElasmobranchii
- orderSqualiformes
- familyEtmopteridae
- genusEtmopterus
- SpeciesEtmopterus spinax (Linnaeus, 1758)
Synonyms Etmopterus aculeatus, Spinax gunneri, Spinax linnei, Spinax niger, Spinax vitulinus, Squalus infernus, Squalus niger, Squalus spinax
Other names and names in other languages (40)
- Velvet belly lantern sharkEnglish
- Velvet-bellyEnglish
- gataAsturian
- Нощна акулаBulgarian
- NegretCatalan
- morgi seithliwWelsh
- sorthajDanish
- kleiner schwarzer DornhaiGerman
- ΜαυροαγκαθίτηςGreek
- negritoSpanish
- harilik tumehaiEstonian
- PikkuhaiFinnish
- sagre commumFrench
- קוצן קטיפתיHebrew
- Fekete tüskéscápaHungarian
- naktinis juodasis dygliaryklisLithuanian
- svarthåNorwegian Bokmål
- donkerbuiklantaarnhaaiDutch
- svarthåNorwegian Nynorsk
- kolczak czarnyPolish
- Ночная акулаRussian
- peshkaqeni barkziAlbanian
- blåkäxaSwedish
- siyah camgozTurkish
- Акула колюча чорнаUkrainian
- Cá mập đèn lồngVietnamese
- Morgwn SeithliwWelsh
- Almindelig sorthajDanish
- Schwarzer DornhaiGerman
- sagre communFrench
- blåmagaNorwegian Nynorsk
- jomfruskruvNorwegian Nynorsk
- småhaiNorwegian Nynorsk
- svarttorskNorwegian Nynorsk
- Бархатнобрюхая акулаRussian
- акула колючая чёрнаяRussian
- siyah camgözTurkish
- siyah kopekbaligiTurkish
- siyah köpekbalığıTurkish
- Чорна колюча акулаUkrainian
Relatives of the velvet belly
Other species in the same genus Etmopterus.
Dwarf lantern shark
Etmopterus perryi
Smooth lanternshark
Etmopterus pusillus
Blackbelly lanternshark
Etmopterus lucifer
Rough sagre
Etmopterus princeps
Splendid lanternshark
Etmopterus splendidus
Slender lanternshark
Etmopterus bigelowi
CompareVelvet belly vs Dwarf lantern sharkVelvet belly vs Smooth lanternsharkVelvet belly vs Blackbelly lanternsharkVelvet belly vs Rough sagre
Common questions
Answered only where our data holds the answer.
What kind of animal is the velvet belly?
The velvet belly (Etmopterus spinax) belongs to the family Etmopteridae in the order Squaliformes.
Sources and how to cite this page
Data as of 2026-11-11. How this page is put together.
- An amniote life-history database to perform comparative analyses with birds, mammals, and reptiles · CC0 1.0 · E096-269
Myhrvold, N.P., Baldridge, E., Chan, B., Sivam, D., Freeman, D.L. & Ernest, S.K.M. (2015) An amniote life-history database to perform comparative analyses with birds, mammals, and reptiles. Ecology 96: 3109. https://doi.org/10.1890/15-0846R.1. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.3563457.v1 - AmphiBIO, a global database for amphibian ecological traits · CC BY 4.0 · v1
Oliveira, B.F., São-Pedro, V.A., Santos-Barrera, G., Penone, C. & Costa, G.C. (2017) AmphiBIO, a global database for amphibian ecological traits. Scientific Data 4: 170123. https://doi.org/10.1038/sdata.2017.123. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.4644424.v5 - AVONET: morphological, ecological and geographical data for all birds · CC BY 4.0 · v7
Tobias, J.A. et al. (2022) AVONET: morphological, ecological and geographical data for all birds. Ecology Letters 25: 581–597. https://doi.org/10.1111/ele.13898. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.16586228.v7 - Catalogue of Life eXtended Release · CC BY 4.0 · 2026-10-16 XR
Catalogue of Life (2026). Catalogue of Life eXtended Release, version 2026-10-16 XR. Catalogue of Life Foundation, Amsterdam, Netherlands. https://doi.org/10.48580/dgzlf - Wikimedia Commons · per file (CC0 / public domain / CC BY green, CC BY-SA amber, anything else not displayed) · 2026-11-11
Wikimedia Commons contributors. Wikimedia Commons. https://commons.wikimedia.org (each file credited to its author under its own licence). - EltonTraits 1.0: species-level foraging attributes of the world's birds and mammals · CC0 1.0 · 1.0
Wilman, H., Belmaker, J., Simpson, J., de la Rosa, C., Rivadeneira, M.M. & Jetz, W. (2014) EltonTraits 1.0: Species-level foraging attributes of the world's birds and mammals. Ecology 95: 2027. https://doi.org/10.1890/13-1917.1. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.3559887.v1 - LepTraits 1.0: a globally comprehensive dataset of butterfly traits · CC0 1.0 · 1.0
Shirey, V., Larsen, E., Doherty, A. et al. (2022) LepTraits 1.0: a globally comprehensive dataset of butterfly traits. Scientific Data 9: 382. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-022-01473-5. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.19874602.v1 - Northwestern European arthropod life histories and ecological traits (raw datasets) · CC BY 4.0 · 2024-12-17
Logghe, G., Batsleer, F., Maes, D. et al. (2025) An in-depth dataset of northwestern European arthropod life histories and ecological traits. Biodiversity Data Journal 13: e146785. https://doi.org/10.3897/BDJ.13.e146785. Data: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.13379714 - ReptTraits: a comprehensive dataset of ecological traits in reptiles · CC BY 4.0 · v1-2
Oskyrko, O., Mi, C., Meiri, S. et al. (2024) ReptTraits: a comprehensive dataset of ecological traits in reptiles. Scientific Data 11: 243. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-024-03079-5. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.24572683.v4 - Sharkipedia: a curated open access database of shark and ray life history traits · CC BY 4.0 · 1.0-2022-06-17
Mull, C.G., Pacoureau, N., Pardo, S.A. et al. (2022) Sharkipedia: a curated open access database of shark and ray life history traits and abundance time-series. Scientific Data 9: 559. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-022-01655-1. Data: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.6656525 - SquamBase 1.0 - a dataset of squamate species traits · CC0 1.0 · 1.0-dryad-v5
Meiri, S. (2024) SquamBase - a database of squamate (Reptilia: Squamata) traits. Global Ecology and Biogeography 33(4): e13812. https://doi.org/10.1111/geb.13812. Data: https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.76hdr7t3b - TraitCH: a multi-taxa functional trait dataset for Switzerland and Europe · CC BY 4.0 · 2.0
Chauvier, Y., Adde, A., Bergamini, A. et al. (2025) TraitCH: a multi-taxa functional trait dataset for Switzerland and Europe. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15063844 - Wikidata · CC0 1.0 · 2026-11-11
Wikidata contributors. Wikidata. https://www.wikidata.org (data retrieved via the Wikidata Query Service). - Wikipedia (English) · CC BY-SA 4.0 · 2026-11-11
Wikipedia contributors. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. https://en.wikipedia.org (text under CC BY-SA 4.0; each block names its article and revision).
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Copy this code. The card shows the photo with its credit, key facts and a link back to this page.
CreatureData. (2026). Velvet belly (Etmopterus spinax). Retrieved from https://creaturedata.com/animals/velvet-belly
“Velvet belly (Etmopterus spinax).” CreatureData, 2026, https://creaturedata.com/animals/velvet-belly.
@misc{velvet_belly_2026,
title = {Velvet belly (Etmopterus spinax)},
author = {{CreatureData}},
year = {2026},
url = {https://creaturedata.com/animals/velvet-belly},
note = {Data as of 2026-11-11}
}