Author: (Poey, 1868)
Negaprion brevirostris (Poey, 1868)
Status in World Register of Marine Species:
Accepted name: Negaprion brevirostris (Poey, 1868) (updated 2009-06-25)
Diagnosis: snout short, bluntly rounded; prenarial length less than distance between nostrils. Teeth with slender smooth-edged cusps, similar in both jaws, uppers erect anteriorly, becoming more oblique posteriorly, basal portion of cusp on upper teeth with five serrations. Spiracle absent. Pectoral fins very broad. First dorsal fin origin behind pectoral fins, its midpoint equidistant from pectoral insertion and pelvic origin, or closer to pelvic origin, the fin low and broad; inter-dorsal ridge absent; second dorsal fin similar to first, slightly smaller; upper caudal lobe axis at low angle to body (15-18°). Colour: yellowish-brown above, white below. Size: to 320 cm TL, mostly under 300 cm TL.
Habitat: demersal in coastal waters, entering estuaries and reported from freshwater; sluggish, remaining near bottom. Food: fishes and crustaceans. Reproduction: viviparous, 5-17 young per litter born at 60 cm TL.
Distribution: possibly in area, but no certain records. Elsewhere, from western Atlantic and tropical East Africa.
Complementary iconography. Jordan and Evermann, 1900, pl. 5 (fig. 18)| Bigelow and Schroeder, 1948, fig. 52-53.