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 pups, one per uterus. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has assessed the slender smooth-hound as Least Concern; it is taken as fishery bycatch but not in great numbers, and furthermore large portions of its range see minimal fishing activity. The first known specimen of the slender smooth-hound was a long adult male collected by the trawler "Maimai" in December 1953, at a depth of off Cape Palliser on New Zealand's North Island. It was preserved by the crew as a curiosity and given to ichthyologist Jack Garrick, who described it in a 1954 issue of the scientific