Author: (Valenciennes, 1839)
Field Marks:
A small grey shark with moderately long rounded snout, fairly large horizontally oval eyes, a black spot on the second dorsal fin but no other markings, oblique-cusped serrated teeth in both jaws, upper teeth with strong, serrated cusplets, usually 13/13 to 14 rows of anterolateral teeth, small semifalcate pectoral fins, a small triangular first dorsal with a short rear tip and a moderately large second dorsal with a short rear tip.
Diagnostic Features:
A small, slender to slightly stocky species (up to about 1 m). Snout moderately long and moderately pointed or narrowly rounded; internarial width 1.1 to 1.6 times in preoral length; anterior nasal flaps elongated and triangular; eyes usually horizontally ovalj moderately large, their length 2 to 2.2% of total length in specimens over 50 cm long; upper labial furrows short and inconspicuous; hyomandibular line of pores just behind mouth corners not conspicuously enlarged; usually 13/13 to 14 rows of anteroposterior teeth in each jaw half but varying from 12 to 14/11 to 15; upper teeth with narrow to moderately broad, strongly serrated, strongly oblique cusps, and crown feet with strong, serrated, distal cusplets; lower teeth with oblique, narrow serrated cusps and transverse roots. Interdorsal ridge present. First dorsal fin small, broadly triangular, not strongly falcate, with pointed or narrowly rounded apex and posterior margin that slopes posteriorly from apex; origin of first dorsal fin over posterior half of pectoral inner margins; second dorsal fin large and high, its height 2.6 to 4% of total length, its inner margin short and 1 to 1.5 times its height; origin of second dorsal over or slightly behind anal fin origin; pectoral fins small, semifalcate, with narrow, angular apices, length of anterior margins about 15 to 17% of total length in large (over 60 cm) individuals; 109 to 150 total vertebral centra, 54 to 74 precaudal centra. Colour grey or grey brown; black or dusky tip present on second dorsal fin only, other fins with pale trailing edges; light stripe on flank not conspicuous.
Geographical Distribution:
Indo-West Pacific: The "Gulf" and Arabian Sea between Gulf of Oman and Pakistan, India, Singapore, Malaysia, Java, Thailand, Borneo, Viet Nam, China, Japan.
Habitat and Biology:
A small, very common, but little-known inshore shark of the centinental and insular shelves, with its biology scantily known because of general confusion with its sibling species C. sealei under the name C. menisorrah (as restricted by Garrick, 1982, properly a synonym of C. falciformis).
Viviparous, with a yolk-sac placenta. Litter size normally 2 but exceptionally up to 4. Off nortnwestern Borneo and off Taiwan Island (Province of China), there is no apparent birth season, as gravid females with full-term young occur all year, but with a peak in July and August; most of the mature females caught off Borneo were gravid (Teshima and Misue, 1972).
A harmless species, probably feeding on small fishes, cephalopods and crustaceans.
Size:
Maximum about 100 cm, males maturing at 65 to 70 cm and reaching at least 82 cm, females maturing at 70 to 75 cm and reaching at least 83 cm. Size at birth 37 to 38 cm.
Interest to Fisheries:
This is a very common, small inshore shark where it occurs, that is readily available to artisanal and smallscale commercial fisheries and is commonly marketed for meat for human consumption.
Type material:
Lectotype: Museum National d'Histoire Naturelle, Paris, MNHN 1135, 370 mm immature male, designated by Garrick (1982). Type Locality: Pondicherry, India.