Australian blackspot shark
species of fish
The Australian blackspot shark or Coates's shark (Carcharhinus coatesi) is a species of requiem shark found off northern Australia (from Shark Bay in Western Australia to K'gari in Queensland) and possibly also off the coast of New Guinea. It belongs to a species complex of blackspot sharks in the family Carcharhinidae. These sharks are not widely studied due to their cryptic nature, but there was a recent reclassification distinguishing it from the whitecheek shark (Carcharhinus dussumieri) and the blackspot shark (Carcharhinus sealei) in 2012. Much of the existing literature predates this reclassification and groups the Australian blackspot shark with the aforementioned closely related species.
Description
The Australian blackspot shark is a small inshore shark. At birth, they range from 38–40 cm (15–16 in) in length. The mature size for both sexes is approximately 70 cm or 28 in. The maximum size recorded is 88 cm or 35 in. They have two dorsal fins, triangular pectoral fins, paired pelvic fins, an anal fin, and a heterocercal caudal fin. The second dorsal has a dark to black tip and all other fins are plain.
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This entry incorporates text from “Australian blackspot shark” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.