Angelshark

Once widespread in the coastal waters of the northeastern Atlantic Ocean. Well-adapted for camouflaging itself on the sea floor, the angelshark has a flattened form with enlarged pectoral and pelvic fins, giving it a superficial resemblance to a ray.

Like other members of its family, the angelshark is a nocturnal ambush predator that buries itself in sediment and waits for passing prey. It normally poses little danger to humans, though if provoked it is quick to bite.

Since the mid-20th century, intense commercial fishing across the angelshark's range have decimated its population via bycatch – it is now locally extinct or nearly so across most of its northern range, and the prospects of the remaining fragmented subpopulations are made more precarious by its slow rate of reproduction. As a result, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has assessed this species as Critically Endangered.

soft substrates such as mud or sand, from depths of 150 m (490 ft). It sometimes enters brackish environments

mostly benthic bony fishes but also skates and invertebrates

females bear litters of 7–25 pups every other year