Author: (Müller and Henle, 1839)
Field Marks:
A small slender grey shark with a long narrowly rounded or somewhat pointed snout, fairly large eyes, oblique-cusped smooth-edged upper anterolateral teeth with strong proximal and distal cusplets, no interdorsal ridge, small pectoral fins, a small first dorsal with an extremely long rear tip, a small low second dorsal with a long rear tip, and no conspicuous markings on fins. Also, this is the only member of its genus with a hypercalcified rostrum, which can easily be felt by pinching its snout.
Diagnostic Features:
A small, slender species (length to less than 1 m). Snout long and narrowly rounded or slightly pointed; internarial width 1.5 to 1.9 times in preoral length; eyes circular and moderately large, their length 1.8 to 2.5% of total length; anterior nasal flaps expanded as a narrow nipple-shaped lobe; upper labial furrows short and inconspicuous; hyomandibular line of pores just behind mouth corners not conspicuously enlarged; gill slits short, third 2.8 to 3.5% of total length and about a third of first dorsal base; about 13 to 14/10 to 14 rows of anteroposterior teeth in each jaw half; upper teeth with narrow, entirely smooth, mostly oblique or semioblique, moderately high cusps, and crown feet with strong distal and proximal cusplets but no serrations; lower teeth with oblique, moderately high smooth cusps and transverse roots. No interdorsal ridge. First dorsal fin moderate-sized and falcate, with a pointed or narrowly rounded apex and posterior margin curving ventrally from fin apex; origin of first dorsal fin usually over or somewhatwanterior to the pectoral free rear tips; inner margin of first dorsal extremely long, about two-thirds of dorsal base; second dorsal fin small and low, its height 1.8 to 2% of total length, its inner margin elongated and 2.3 to 2.4 times its height; origin of second dorsal well behind anal origin, near anal midbase; pectoral fins small, falcate, with narrowly rounded or pointed apices, length of anterior margins about 14 to 16% of total length; 151 to 156 total vertebral centra. Colour grey or grey-brown above, white below, fins with light edges but not conspicuously marked; light flank marks not conspicuous.
Geographical Distribution:
Indo-West Pacific: Kenya, Tanzania, Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka, Andaman Sea, Burma, Viet Nam, China (including Taiwan Province), New Guinea.
Habitat and Biology:
A small, common but little-known inshore shark of the continental and insular shelves.
In Bombay waters over 95% of the individuals caught are males, the rest females, indicating strong sexual segregation within its populations.
Viviparous, with a yolk-sac placenta; number of young 1 or 2 (usually 2) to a litter.
Probably feeds on small fishes, cephalopods and crustaceans, but diet apparently not reported.
Size:
Maximum size probably below 100 cm, adult males maturing at about 69 cm and reaching 81 cm, adult females 76 to 89 cm; size at birth 45 to 50 cm.
Interest to Fisheries:
Apparently regularly caught off Pakistan, Sri Lanka, India and China; caught by gillnet and by line gear, and utilized fresh and probably dried salted for human consumption.
Type material:
Holotype: Rijksmuseum van Natuurlijke Historie, Leiden, adult male. Type Locality: New Guinea.