Dogfish Spiny, Squalus acanthias

Buellesbach EE, Gowan LK, Schwabe C et al. Isolation, purification, and the sequence of relaxin from spiny dogfish (Squalus acanthias). Eur J Biochem 1986 161 335. 

In adult fish, females often contain higher mercury concentrations than males, possibly because they consume more food than males in order to support the energy requirements of egg production. The increased feeding rate in females causes greater dietary uptake of methylmercury however, the transfer to egg mass is a small fraction of the maternal body burden. Mercury concentrations in spiny dogfish (Squalus acanthias), were influenced by dogfish sex, length, and area of collection. 

California dogfish, Squalus suckley, 433 Spiny dogfish, Squalus acanthias, 430,... 

El-Toubi, M.R. (1949) The development of the chondrocranium of the spiny dogfish, Acanthias vulgaris (Squalus acanthias) . Journal of Morphology, 84, 227-79. 

As its name indicates, squalamine was isolated from the shark Squalus acanthias, known as the dogfish or spiny dogfish because of a large spine located on a dorsal fin. S. acanthias is a small shark, usually 80-130 cm long, that lives in deep water and is omnivorous. Squalamine may possibly be the marine molecule for which the time between discovery and the marketing authorization will have been shortest. Discovered in 1993, the chemical synthesis of squalamine was patented in 1994 and the molecule entered Phase II clinical trials for ovarian cancer on 31st January 2000. A squalamine preparation, Squalamax , was patented in November 2000 by Maiganin Pharmaceutical Inc., but NDA authorization has still not yet been obtained. 

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