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Concept
Largetooth sawfish
Summary
The largetooth sawfish (Pristis pristis, syn. P. microdon and P. perotteti) is a species of sawfish in the family Pristidae. It is found worldwide in tropical and subtropical coastal regions, but also enters freshwater. It has declined drastically and is now critically endangered.
A range of English names have been used for the species, or populations now part of the species, including common sawfish (despite it being far from common today), wide sawfish, freshwater sawfish, river sawfish (less frequently, other sawfish species also occur in freshwater and rivers), Leichhardt's sawfish (after explorer and naturalist Ludwig Leichhardt) and northern sawfish.
The taxonomy of Pristis pristis in relations to P. microdon (claimed range: Indo-West Pacific) and P. perotteti (claimed range: Atlantic and East Pacific) has historically caused considerable confusion, but evidence published in 2013 revealed that the three are conspecific, as morphological and genetic differences are lacking. As a consequence, recent authorities treat P. microdon and P. perotteti as synonyms of P. pristis.
Based on an analysis of NADH-2 genes there are three main clades of P. pristis: Atlantic, Indo-West Pacific and East Pacific.
Its scientific name Pristis (both the genus and specific name) is derived from the Greek word for saw.
The largetooth sawfish possibly reaches up to in total length, but the largest confirmed was a West African individual that was long. An individual caught in 1951 at Galveston, Texas, which was documented on film but not measured, has been estimated to be of similar size. Today most individuals are far smaller and a typical length is . Large individuals may weigh as much as , or possibly even more.
The largetooth sawfish is easily recognized by the forward position of the dorsal fin with its leading edge placed clearly in front of the leading edge of the pelvic fins (when the sawfish is seen from above or the side), the relatively long pectoral fins with angular tips, and the presence of a small lower tail lobe.
Official source
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