Anoxypristis cuspidata

The narrow sawfish, also known as the pointed sawfish or knifetooth sawfish, is a species of sawfish in the family Pristidae, part of the Batoidea, a superorder of cartilaginous fish that include the rays and skates. Sawfish display a circumglobal distribution in warm marine and freshwater habitats. Their extant biodiversity is limited to five species belonging to two genera. The sawfishes are characterised by the long, narrow, flattened rostrum or extension on their snout. This is lined with sharp transverse teeth, arranged in a way that resembles the teeth of a saw and are used for killing prey. It is found in the shallow coastal waters and estuaries of the Indo-West Pacific, ranging from the Persian Gulf to southern Japan, Papua New Guinea and northern Australia. It is the only living member of the genus Anoxypristis, but was previously included in the genus Pristis. Compared to Pristis, Anoxypristis has a narrower rostral saw with numerous teeth on the distal part and no teeth on the basal one-quarter. It reaches a length of up to 3.5 m (11 ft).

Anoxypristis cuspidata

CSIRO National Fish COllection · CC BY 1.0 · via Wikidata/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.

On record

Recorded, not inferred
Also called
pointed sawfishPBDB
Sits inside
AnoxypristisPBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Chondrichthyes
Life habit
nektonicPBDB, for Chondrichthyes
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Chondrichthyes

Time the record covers

At most 1.1 million years on record.

The one occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 3.6 Mya and 2.58 Mya, which is a dating window rather than a span.

Pliocene — about 1 of 1 occurrencePliocenePleistocene — about 0 of 1 occurrence3.6–3.6 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences3.6–3.5 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences3.5–3.4 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences3.4–3.4 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences3.4–3.3 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences3.3–3.2 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences3.2–3.2 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences3.2–3.1 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences3.1–3.0 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences3.0–3.0 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences3.0–2.9 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences2.9–2.8 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences2.8–2.8 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences2.8–2.7 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences2.7–2.6 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences2.6–2.6 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences4.1 Mya2.08 Mya

1 occurrence of Anoxypristis cuspidata on record, most of them in the Pliocene. The Paleobiology Database records this as a living group, and the chart stops with its fossils rather than at the present. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.

When

1 occurrences

These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.

Found in

1 formation

Argille Azzurre — 43.58°N, 10.92°E

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The named rock units Anoxypristis cuspidata has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed.

Anoxypristis cuspidata and its relatives

Pliocene

Where Anoxypristis cuspidata and its relatives were recorded in the Pliocene.

Found in the same rock

5 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 1 site for Anoxypristis cuspidata, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too.

This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.

Entered from

1 reference

Each of the 1 occurrence read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. Each entry links to doi.org. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content1

Picture of Anoxypristis cuspidata

Credit
CSIRO National Fish COllection
Licence
CC BY 1.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Anoxypristis cuspidata was found in Sketchfab.

Smithsonian Open Access and MorphoSource were not reached for this taxon, so this list is what the others held rather than everything there is.

The description on this site

Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0

This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.

Keep going

What may have been alongside itAnoxypristis through timeFormations of the PlioceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Latham 1794)