Author: Gill, 1862
Diagnostic Features:
Body fairly stout. Head broad and flattened but not trowel-shaped; snout broadly parabolic in dorsoventral view and moderately long, with preoral length considerably greater than internarial space and nearly equal to mouth width; eyes fairly small, without posterior notches; spiracles absent; no papillose gillrakers on internal gill openings; nostrils small, internarial space about 3 times the nostril width; anterior nasal flaps short, broadly triangular, but not tubular; labial furrows short, essentially confined to mouth corners, with uppers shorter than lowers and falling far behind eyes; teeth strongly differentiated in upper and lower jaws; upper anteroposteriors with more or less erect, broad, triangular cusps, no cusplets or blades, and serrations; lowers without cusplets but with variably oblique to erect, long hooked cusps and with serrations absent; cusps of lower teeth slightly protruding when mouth is closed; 29 to 37/28 to 34 rows of teeth. Interdorsal ridge absent; no lateral keels on caudal peduncle; upper precaudal pit longitudinal and not crescentic. First dorsal origin over pectoral inner margins, its midbase slightly closer to pectoral bases than to pelvics and free rear tip slightly anterior, over, or slightly posterior to pelvic fin origins; second dorsal fin nearly as large as first, its height 3/4 or more of first dorsal height; its origin about opposite anal origin; pectoral fins broad and triangular, their lengths from origin to free rear tip over 3/4 of pectoral anterior margins; pectoral origins varying from under fourth gill slit to under interspace between fourth and fifth gill slits; anal fin somewhat smaller than second dorsal, with preanal ridges very short or absent and a nearly straight to slightly concave posterior margin. Colour grey or brownish above, without a colour pattern. Moderate-sized sharks, adults probably not exceeding 2 m.
Remarks:
This genus is usually synonymized with Carcharhinus but was revived for Carcharias (Prionodon) temmincki Müller and Henle, 1839 by Compagno (1970, 1979). See the latter account for the rationalle for recognizing this genus. Garrick (1982) has excluded temmincki from Carcharhinus in his revision of the genus, and Cadenat and Blache (1981) has recognized Lamiopsis also.