Dwarf sawfish
species of fish
The dwarf sawfish or Queensland sawfish (Pristis clavata) is a sawfish of the family Pristidae, found in tropical Australia. This endangered species is the smallest species in its family.
Description
The dwarf sawfish has a torpedo-shaped body that resembles that of a shark, and grows to a length of about 3.2 m (10.5 ft). It has broad, triangular pectoral fins and large, upright dorsal fins. The first dorsal fin is located directly above, or slightly behind, the origins of the pelvic fins, and the caudal fin has a very small lower lobe. The snout is broad and flat and is elongated into a rostrum with around twenty pairs of rostral teeth. The rostral teeth are rounded and lack the grooves seen in Largetooth sawfish, and if present, they are very small and limited. This fish is usually greenish-brown, or occasionally yellowish-brown, on its dorsal surface, and whitish underneath.
Distribution and habitat
The dwarf sawfish is native to the western and central Indo-Pacific region and historically had a much wider range than it does now. Its present confirmed range is from southern New Guinea to the tropical region of northern Australia.
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This entry incorporates text from “Dwarf sawfish” 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.