Smalltooth Sawfish Identification Guide

Key identification features

• Long, flat, blade-like rostrum, or saw, lined with 24 to 32 pairs of evenly spaced, narrow rostral teeth
• Shark-like body shape with a low first dorsal fin positioned roughly above or slightly ahead of the pelvic fins
• Grey, greenish-grey, or brownish upperside, pale underside
• Rostrum length roughly one-quarter to one-third of the total body length
• Two similarly sized dorsal fins and an asymmetrical, shark-like tail

Common look-alikes

• Largetooth sawfish has a wider, more robust rostrum with fewer and larger rostral teeth, 14 to 24 pairs, and a first dorsal fin set further forward, closer to the pectoral fins
• Guitarfish and shovelnose rays have a flattened, wedge-shaped snout rather than a narrow, tooth-lined blade

Where you'll see one

Historically widespread in shallow coastal waters, estuaries, and mangrove-lined lagoons of the tropical and subtropical western Atlantic, though its range has contracted sharply and it is now rare through most of its former range, with the largest remaining population found in Florida's shallow coastal and estuarine waters.