Common smooth-hound on its underneath. It is often confused with the starry smooth-hound which has white spots on its back. The starry smooth-hound can often have faded spots which leads to misidentification. Another shark it is often confused with is the tope shark although the common smooth hound has a larger second dorsal fin. Due to the similarities between the common smooth-hound and other sharks, misidentification occurred for a long time. The common smooth-hound has two dorsal fins, an anal fin, a pair of pectoral fins, a pair of pelvic fins and a heterocercal tail. All of these fins help stabilise the
Starry smooth-hound least and prefers places where the seabed is sand or gravel. The starry smooth-hound mostly feeds on crustaceans, such as crabs, lobsters, and slipper lobsters, and molluscs. It matures at a length of about . It is an ovoviviparous fish, retaining its eggs in its oviduct where the young are nourished by the egg yolk and the oviduct's secretions. Seven to 15 young are in a litter, and they are about long at birth. The IUCN, in its Red List of Threatened Species lists the starry smooth-hound as "Least Concern". The justification for this is that it has a wide