ノコギリザメ

What this shark is

The elongated saw-like snout with lateral teeth and a pair of barbels is unmistakable. Unlike sawfishes, sawsharks also retain typical shark gill placement on the sides of the head.

Where it lives

Sawsharks occur in temperate and tropical shelf and slope waters, especially in the Indo-Pacific, with a few regional species elsewhere.

They are bottom-associated sharks of soft substrates on outer shelves and upper slopes, though some enter shallower water.

How it differs from similar sharks

Family: Pristiophoridae

Compare it against Longnose sawshark, Pristiophorus Delicatus, and Pristiophorus Lanae.

Why it is notable

Direct encounters are uncommon and usually involve fishery capture rather than recreation.

Species-level taxonomy was verified from Sharkipedia's current species list and taxonomy workbook. In this pass, the narrative fields are cautious family-level placeholders synthesized from broad shark references, chiefly the FAO Sharks of the World catalogue, because a stronger multi-source species-level synthesis was not assembled here without risking invented detail. Replace this with a direct species-level synthesis before publication in the app.