Featured Image Credit: Florida Museum of Natural History
By Sarah Sharkey
The sawfish is one of the ocean’s craziest looking creatures. Also, one of the most confusing… is it a fish or is it a shark? We just had to know. So we dove deep into the facts. Here’s what we learned at sawfish school.
We can all see that sawfish have a unique snout that easily distinguishes them from other fish. But did you know that the teeth on a sawfish’s snout are not true teeth? They are actually modified scales that are used to attack and stun its prey. A sawfish does have real teeth but they are located inside its mouth, which is on its underside.
These creatures definitely have a distinctive appearance. They are classified as elamsobranchs, which means they are fish with a cartilage skeleton. Other notable elasmobranchs include skates, rays and sharks. This explains why they look like “modified rays with a shark like body,” according to NOAA. Doesn’t this sawfish look like a shark at first glance? This could be why it is also known as the carpenter shark, but not to be confused with sawsharks.
Sawfish belong to the family Pristidae, and this family only contains five sawfish species. They are actually the only living family in the order Pristiformes. Talk about unique. Sadly, all species of sawfish are listed as either Endangered or Critically Endangered.
Imagine your car, it is roughly 15 ft long. Now, picture a sawfish. These guys can grow to be over 20 feet long! That is a lot of fish, even though most of that comes from its rostrum (or snout).
After learning a bit about these creatures, you may want to know where you could encounter one in the wild. Unfortunately, sawfish populations around the world are on the decline and your chances of finding one is pretty slim. But if you explore the southern part of Florida or the eastern part of Australia, you may be lucky enough to run into one. If you do see one, please report it to the Florida Museum of Natural History website. Researchers use this data to estimate populations, and create plans for recovery.