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The animal on the cover of Learning Spark is a small-spotted catshark (Scyliorhinus canicula), one of the most abundant elasmobranchs in the Northeast Atlantic and Mediterranean Sea. It is a small, slender shark with a blunt head, elongated eyes, and a rounded snout. The dorsal surface is grayish-brown and patterned with many small dark and sometimes lighter spots. The texture of the skin is rough, similar to the coarseness of sandpaper.

This small shark feeds on marine invertebrates including mollusks, crustaceans, cephalopods, and polychaete worms. It also feeds on small bony fish, and occasionally larger fish. It is an oviparous species that deposits egg-cases in shallow coastal waters, protected by a horny capsule with long tendrils.

The small-spotted catshark is of only moderate commercial fisheries importance, however it is utilized in public aquarium display tanks. Though commercial landings are made and large individuals are retained for human consumption, the species is often discarded and studies show that post-discard survival rates are high.

Many of the animals on O’Reilly covers are endangered; all of them are important to the world. To learn more about how you can help, go to animals.oreilly.com.

The cover image is from Wood’s Animate Creation. The cover fonts are URW Typewriter and Guardian Sans. The text font is Adobe Minion Pro; the heading font is Adobe Myriad Condensed; and the code font is Dalton Maag’s Ubuntu Mono.