Slender smooth-hound Zealand, including submarine features to the north such as the Three Kings Ridge, the Challenger Plateau, and the Wanganella Bank. This uncommon species is mainly found between deep, but has been recorded from deep. It prefers a temperature of around and a salinity of approximately 34.8‰. Generally swimming near the sea floor, this shark inhabits both soft and rocky-bottomed habitats in terrain ranging from plateaus to steep slopes. The slender smooth-hound has a very thin body and a broad, highly flattened head. The snout is long, with a distinctive bell-shaped outline when viewed from above. The eyes have an elongate
Slender smooth-hound in size. The diet of the slender smooth-hound is diverse, but dominated by small, benthic bony fishes and decapod crustaceans. It exhibits a specialized form of aplacental viviparity with oophagy: the females produce a single capsule in each uterus that contains 30–80 ova, of which one ovum develops into an embryo that consumes the rest of the ova and stores the yolk material in its external yolk sac. The growing embryo is mainly sustained by this yolk sac during gestation, though it may be additionally supplied with histotroph ("uterine milk") produced by the mother. The typical litter size is two