Sawfish

Sawfishes are flattened cartilaginous fish with a snout that is considerably elongated and has a series of 16–32 teeth on either side, similar to guitarfishes. Sawfishes, like guitarfishes, have a shark-like body with short pectoral fins that aren’t employed to propel the body forward; instead, like sharks, the motive power for swimming is obtained from sinuous body motions. Sawfish, on the other hand, have gill slits on the bottom of their heads, indicating that they are closely related to rays rather than sharks. They live in tropical marine and brackish seas, although they can also be found in tropical freshwaters. The common sawfish, Pristis pectinatus, lives in the Atlantic and Mediterranean and can grow to be 18 feet (5–4 metres) long. CLASS: Chondrichthyes, FAMILY: Pristidae, ORDER: Hypotremata,