User:Irishelasmobranchgroup/draft article on starry smooth-hound

The starry smooth-hound, Mustelus asterias, is a houndshark of the family Triakidae, found on the continental shelves of the Northeast Atlantic and Mediterranean Sea. The southern limit of its distribution is Mauritania. The white spots of Mustelus asterias have long been used as the specific characteristic to differentiate M. asterias from the related common smooth-hound, Mustelus mustelus however the appearance of these spots displays much intraspecific variability and they may appear vivid, faint or even absent in some specimens. This is not unusual among white-spotted Mustelus species and has also been documented in Mustelus manazo. The consequence of this is that M. asterias with no obvious spots or even very faint spots are often misidentified as M. mustelus. This has