Trophic Relations of Lesser Spotted Dogfish (Scyliorhinus canicula) and Black Mouth Dogfish (Galeus melastomus) in the Benthic and Demersal Communities of the Cantabrian Sea

Scyliorhinus canicula and Galeus melastomus are the most abundant squaliforms in the Cantabrian shelf; the ranges of their distribution depths overlap, although they belong to different megabenthic communities. These species are predators and carrion feeders; they feed on megabenthos in several habitats. Their diets according to the size of the predator specimens and to the communities of the continental shelf and slope they belong to are compared in this paper. To examine their feeding strategy, data on the abundance and distribution of the predators, together with the biological knowledge about their most characteristic prey, are analysed. S. canicula preys present a high taxonomic diversity, 4.53, than G. melastomus, 2.56, and its food habits are also more benthic. The trophic spectra of lesser spotted dogfish and black mouth dogfish were significantly overlapped. The diets of the specimens of both dogfishes caught in the same hauls (zones of coexistence) are also compared