Largetooth sawfish
| Largetooth sawfish | |
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| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Chondrichthyes |
| Subclass: | Elasmobranchii |
| Order: | Pristiformes |
| Family: | Pristidae |
| Genus: | Pristis |
| Species: | P. microdon |
| Binomial name | |
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Pristis microdon Latham, 1794 |
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The largetooth sawfish (Pristis microdon), also known as the Leichhardt's sawfish or freshwater sawfish, is a sawfish of the family Pristidae, found in shallow Indo-West Pacific oceans between latitudes 11° N and 39° S. As its relatives, it also enters freshwater. This species reaches a length of up to 7 metres (23 ft). Reproduction is ovoviviparous. Recent evidence strongly suggests P. microdon is synonymous with P. pristis. Consequently, the IUCN removed P. microdon from their list, instead recognizing it as part of the critically endangered P. pristis.
Considerable taxonomic confusion has surrounded this species. It is part of the Pristis pristis species complex, which also includes P. perotteti. P. microdon has sometimes been considered synonymous with P. perotteti, and uncertainty exists over what species the scientific name P. microdon really belong to (the original description lacked a type locality).
Recent evidence strongly suggests the three are conspecific (in which case P. microdon and P. perotteti are synonyms of P. pristis), as morphological and genetic differences are lacking. Three main clades based on NADH-2 genes were evident (Atlantic, Indo-West Pacific, and East Pacific), but these do not match the distributions claimed for P. pristis (circumtropical), P. microdon (Indo-West Pacific) and P. perotteti (Atlantic and East Pacific) respectively.
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