Animalia > Chordata > Elasmobranchii > Lamniformes > Odontaspididae > Carcharias > Carcharias taurus

Carcharias taurus (Spotted sand tiger shark; Spotted ragged-tooth shark; Spotted raggedtooth shark; Spotted ragged-tooth; Spotted raggedtooth; Shovel-nosed shark; Slender-tooth shark; Sandtiger shark; Sand-tiger; Sand tiger shark; Sand tiger; Sand shark; Nuss shark; Ground shark; Greynurse shark; Grey nurse; Grey Nurse Shark; Gray nurse shark; Dogfish shark; Blue-nurse sand tiger; Blue nurse shark)

Synonyms:
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Wikipedia Abstract

The sand tiger shark (Carcharias taurus), grey nurse shark, spotted ragged-tooth shark, or blue-nurse sand tiger is a species of shark that inhabits subtropical and temperate waters worldwide. It inhabits the continental shelf, from sandy shorelines (hence the name sand tiger shark) and submerged reefs to a depth of around 191 m (627 ft). They dwell in the waters of Japan, Australia, South Africa, the Mediterranean and the east coasts of North and South America. Despite its name, it is not related to the tiger shark Galeocerdo cuvier; however, it is a cousin of the great white shark Carcharodon carcharias. Despite its fearsome appearance and strong swimming ability, it is a relatively placid and slow-moving shark with no confirmed human fatalities. This species has a sharp, pointy head, an
View Wikipedia Record: Carcharias taurus

Endangered Species

Status: Critically Endangered
View IUCN Record: Carcharias taurus

Attributes

Litter Size [2]  2
Maximum Longevity [2]  12 years
Migration [3]  Oceanodromous
Nocturnal [1]  Yes
Water Biome [1]  Reef, Coastal
Adult Weight [2]  192.553 lbs (87.34 kg)
Diet [1]  Carnivore
Female Maturity [2]  6 years 10 months
Male Maturity [2]  4 years 6 months

Protected Areas

Name IUCN Category Area acres Location Species Website Climate Land Use
Gateway National Recreation Area V 1807 New Jersey, United States
Tsitsikamma National Park II 34343 Southern Cape, South Africa  

Prey / Diet

Prey / Diet Overlap

Consumers

External References

NatureServe Explorer

Citations

Attributes / relations provided by
♦ 1Myers, P., R. Espinosa, C. S. Parr, T. Jones, G. S. Hammond, and T. A. Dewey. 2006. The Animal Diversity Web (online). Accessed February 01, 2010 at animaldiversity.org
♦ 2de Magalhaes, J. P., and Costa, J. (2009) A database of vertebrate longevity records and their relation to other life-history traits. Journal of Evolutionary Biology 22(8):1770-1774
♦ 3Riede, Klaus (2004) Global Register of Migratory Species - from Global to Regional Scales. Final Report of the R&D-Projekt 808 05 081. 330 pages + CD-ROM
♦ 4The diet of the ragged-tooth shark Carcharias taurus Rafinesque 1810 in the Eastern Cape, South Africa, MJ Smale, African Journal of Marine Science 2005, 27(1): 331–335
♦ 5Jorrit H. Poelen, James D. Simons and Chris J. Mungall. (2014). Global Biotic Interactions: An open infrastructure to share and analyze species-interaction datasets. Ecological Informatics.
♦ 6Food of Northwest Atlantic Fishes and Two Common Species of Squid, Ray E. Bowman, Charles E. Stillwell, William L. Michaels, and Marvin D. Grosslein, NOAA Technical Memorandum NMFS-NE-155 (2000)
♦ 7Pollerspöck, J. & Straube, N. (2015), Bibliography database of living/fossil sharks, rays and chimaeras (Chondrichthyes: Elasmobranchii, Holocephali) -Host-Parasites List/Parasite-Hosts List-, World Wide Web electronic publication, Version 04/2015;
♦ 8Gibson, D. I., Bray, R. A., & Harris, E. A. (Compilers) (2005). Host-Parasite Database of the Natural History Museum, London
Abstract provided by DBpedia licensed under a Creative Commons License
Species taxanomy provided by GBIF Secretariat (2022). GBIF Backbone Taxonomy. Checklist dataset https://doi.org/10.15468/39omei accessed via GBIF.org on 2023-06-13; License: CC BY 4.0