Largetooth sawfish | |
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Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Chondrichthyes |
Subclass: | Elasmobranchii |
Order: | Rhinopristiformes |
Family: | Pristidae |
Genus: | Pristis |
Species: | P. pristis
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Binomial name | |
Pristis pristis | |
Synonyms | |
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The largetooth sawfish (Pristis pristis, syn. P. microdon and P. perotteti) is a species of sawfish in the family Pristidae. It is found worldwide in tropical and subtropical coastal regions, but also enters freshwater. It has declined drastically and is now critically endangered.[1][3][4]
A range of English names have been used for the species, or populations now part of the species, including common sawfish (despite it being far from common today),[3] wide sawfish,[5] freshwater sawfish, river sawfish (less frequently, other sawfish species also occur in freshwater and rivers), Leichhardt's sawfish (after explorer and naturalist Ludwig Leichhardt) and northern sawfish.[6]