Largetooth Sawfish Identification Guide

Key identification features

• Broad, robust rostrum, or saw, armed with 14 to 24 pairs of large, widely spaced rostral teeth
• Shark-like body with a first dorsal fin set relatively far forward, roughly above or ahead of the pelvic fin origin
• Grey, brown, or olive upperside fading to a pale underside
• Rostrum proportionally shorter and stouter than in the smalltooth sawfish
• Capable of reaching very large sizes, among the largest of all sawfish species

Common look-alikes

• Smalltooth sawfish has a narrower, more slender saw carrying more numerous, closely spaced teeth, 24-32 pairs, and a first dorsal fin set further back
• Green sawfish has a similarly broad saw but rostral teeth that extend closer to the very tip of the rostrum

Where you'll see one

Once found in shallow coastal waters, estuaries, and freshwater rivers and lakes across the tropics worldwide, including parts of the Indo-Pacific, Atlantic, and eastern Pacific. It tolerates fresh water well and historically ranged far upriver, but like other sawfish it has disappeared from much of its former range and is now restricted to a few strongholds, notably northern Australia.