[1] This shark is an olive grey or brown in color, and may have shades of yellow or grayish white.

[4] M. canis is found in marine and brackish waters and is demersal (bottom-dwelling) and oceanodromous (migratory in seas).

In winter, they can be found in the Carolinas to the outlet of the Chesapeake Bay, and in summer from the mid-Atlantic to southern New England.

[6] They are most abundant on the East Coast, from Massachusetts to Florida, Brazil to Argentina, and in the Gulf of Mexico.

The caudal fin has two asymmetrical lobes, the lower is smaller and rounder and the upper has a deep notch.

[7] One main characteristic of elasmobranch fishes is their ability to continually replace the teeth in their upper and lower jaws.

[8] The teeth in the upper and lower jaws are similar in size and are asymmetrical with rounded cusps.

[9] Smooth dogfish also eat squid, worms, small fish, razor clams, and sometimes scavenge discarded animal products.

[5] Because of their late maturation, low fecundity, and restricted distributions, they are still more vulnerable to overfishing than teleost fishes.

[12] Juvenile females have filiform uteri, small ovaries with undifferentiated oocyctes, egg cells, and narrow, thread-like oviducts with undeveloped oviducal glands.

Adolescents have enlarged oviducal glands with distinguishable oocytes and no or few corpora lutea.

[12] Juvenile males have soft, small claspers and undeveloped testes with straight, thread-like ampullae ductus deferens.

[6] They are caught using longlines and bottom trawls primarily off of Massachusetts, New Jersey, Maryland, Virginia, and North Carolina.