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Sawfish Species
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Pristis pectinata - Smalltooth Sawfish
* Worldwide distribution
* First dorsal fin directly over pelvic fins
* Tail without lower lobe
* Narrow rostrum with 20 - 34 pairs of teeth
* Rostral teeth awl-like, with concave groove on
posterior edge
Pristis perotteti - Largetooth Sawfish
* Atlantic coasts of the Americas & Africa
* First dorsal fin starts well ahead of pelvic fins
* Tail has distinct lower lobe
* Wide rostrum with 14 - 21 pairs of teeth
* Rostral teeth awl-like, with concave groove on
posterior edge
Pristis microdon - Freshwater Sawfish
* Indo-Pacific distribution
* First dorsal fin starts well ahead of pelvic fins
* Tail has distinct lower lobe
* Wide rostrum with 14 - 23 pairs of teeth
* Rostral teeth awl-like, with concave groove on
posterior edge
Pristis zijsron - Green Sawfish
* Indo-Pacific distribution
* First dorsal fin begins slightly behind pelvic fins
* Tail without lower lobe
* Narrow rostrum with 23 - 37 pairs of teeth
* Rostral teeth awl-like, with concave groove on
posterior edge
Pristis clavata - Queensland Sawfish
* Northern Australia; perhaps Indo-Pacific
* First dorsal fin begins above or slightly behind pelvic fins
* Tail without lower lobe
* Medium rostrum with 18 - 23 pairs of teeth
* Rostral teeth awl-like, with concave groove on
posterior edge
Anoxypristis cuspidata - Knifetooth Sawfish
* Indo-Pacific distribution
* First dorsal fin begins slightly behind pelvic fins
* Tail with very strong lower lobe
* Very narrow rostrum with 16 - 35 pairs of teeth
* Rostral teeth flat and triangular with a sharp
posterior edge
* * Where is Pristis pristis (the Common Sawfish) ?
I have not included this sawfish species because in my opinion it does not (and never did) exist. When this species was named by Linnaeus in 1758, he intended only to separate sawfishes from sharks, as he was apparently unaware of species differences among the sawfishes. He designated sawfishes in general as Squalus pristis, now corrected to Pristis pristis.
His description was based solely on a highly stylized drawing, impossible to confidently assign to species. It is unclear whether Linnaeus even had a specimen to examine, and neither anatomical nor distribution details were provided. Most likely, Pristis pristis was merely an early, incomplete, and unintentional description of one of the largetooth species (either P. microdon or P. perotteti). As a result, I do not hold P. pristis as a valid species description, and thus choose not to list it on this page.
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Pristis pectinata
Photo by Ed Herndon
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Pristis microdon
Ripley's Aquarium of the Smokies
Photo by Matthew McDavitt
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Pristis zijsron
Ripley's Aquarium of the Smokies
Photo by Matthew McDavitt
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Anoxypristis cuspidata
Papuan Gulf, Papua New Guinea
Photo by Tom Eley
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