Speartooth shark: Where It Lives, Map & Facts

Where the speartooth shark lives – recorded in 1 country, with quick facts from Wikidata and an introduction from Wikipedia.

Scientific name	Glyphis glyphis
Group	Sharks
Status	Vulnerable (Wikidata, IUCN category label)
Found in	1 country
Continents	Oceania
Class	Cartilaginous fish
Order	Carcharhiniformes
Family	Carcharhinidae

Where does the speartooth shark live?

Open-licence (CC0 / CC BY) wild records published on GBIF place the speartooth shark in 1 country or territory across Oceania. Wikidata gives its range as: New Guinea.

Australia

Countries with at least a handful of records (a minimum share of the species’ records, to leave out vagrants and escapes). Records with coordinates only; captive and fossil records excluded.

Is the speartooth shark endangered?

The speartooth shark’s conservation status recorded in Wikidata is “Vulnerable” (an IUCN Red List category label). Source: Wikidata.

What kind of animal is the speartooth shark?

The speartooth shark (Glyphis glyphis) is a cartilaginous fish in the order Carcharhiniformes and the family Carcharhinidae, genus Glyphis. (Taxonomy from Wikidata.)

About the speartooth shark

The speartooth shark (Glyphis glyphis) is a rare species of river shark, belonging to the family Carcharhinidae. It inhabits coastal marine waters and tidal reaches of large tropical rivers in northern Australia and New Guinea. Despite being a member of the river shark genus, it is also found in near-shore marine waters, favoring highly turbid environments over a wide range of salinities. This robustly built, gray-colored shark is characterized by a short and broad snout, tiny eyes, a relatively large second dorsal fin, and a black blotch beneath each pectoral fin near the tip. Another identifying trait is its teeth, which are large, triangular, and serrated in the upper jaw and narrow, spear-like, and serrated only near the tips in the lower jaw. Adults grow to about 2.6 m (8.5 ft) long.

Text in “About” is quoted from the Wikipedia article Speartooth shark (revision 1355300542), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes: lead section excerpted verbatim, formatting removed. Quick facts, taxonomy and status: Wikidata Q1650961 (CC0). Countries and pin: GBIF.org occurrence records (CC0 / CC BY 4.0).