Author: (Muller and Henle, 1841)
Carcharhinus brevipinna (Muller and Henle, 1841)
Status in World Register of Marine Species:
Accepted name: Carcharhinus brevipinna (Müller and Henle, 1839) (updated 2009-06-25)
Diagnosis: snout long and conical; pre-narial length 1.1-1.4 times greater than distance from front of nostrils to front of mouth. Teeth small and spike-like, uppers serrate, lowers serrate or non-serrate; tooth counts
16 or 17-2 or 3-16 or 17
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15 or 16-2 or 3-15 or 16
mandible with smooth trailing edge
(with a notch in C. Iimbatus). First dorsal fin origin usually behind free tip of pectoral fin, the dorsal fin relatively small, height less than 10% TL, dorsal interspace greater than 2.2 times fin height; inter-dorsal ridge absent. Length of lower caudal lobe less than half length of upper. Colour: grey to copper-bronze above, white below, sides with narrowing band of grey from over pectorals to origin of pelvic, with corresponding band of white above; all fins tipped black, except in small juveniles. Pups born without fin pigmentation, tips developing at lengths of 80-130 cm TL, or within three months after birth. Size: to 278 cm TL, common to 220 cm TL.
Habitat: in coastal to open ocean waters, possibly limited by 18° surface isotherm; fast-swimming, epipelagic, known for leaping from the water in spinning motion, rotating 1 1/2 times and falling back into the water on their backs. Food: primarily fish. Reproduction: viviparous, I litter every two years, 6-15 pups, 60-75 cm TL at birth. Parturition occurs in coastal waters.
Distribution: northward to Spain and throughout the Mediterranean (reported common off Tunisia, Egypt and Israel). Elsewhere, southward to Angola, and in all other temperate and tropical waters except the eastern Pacific.
Complementary iconography. Bigelow and Schroeder, 1948b, fig. 66-67 | Poll, 1951, fig. 16-18 | Smith, 1951, fig. 1-2 | D'Aubrey, 1964a, pl. 25.
Eggs, larvae and young stages. Bigelow and Schroeder, 1948: 367 | S. Springer, 1963: 110.