Taxanomy of finfishes | spinner shark | elasmobranches

1. Spinner shark
Carcharhinus brevipinna
Taxanomy of fin fishes
(Elasmobranches)

2. Classification of
spinner shark
Kingdom : Animalia
Phylum : Chordata
Sub phylum : vertebrata
Super class : gnathostmata
Class : Chondricthyes
Sub class : elasmobranchii
Super order : galeomorphi
Order : Carcharhiniformes
Family : Carcharhinidae
Genus : Carcharhinus
Species : brevipinna

3. Elasmobranchus
Greek : elasmo - metal beaten out
branchus – gills
• The Term elasmobranchus refers to the sharks, rays and skates which are cartilaginous
fishes.
• These animals have a skeleton made of cartilage.
• The classification system refer to these organisms as class Chondrichthyes and sub
class elasmobranchii.

4. Order – carcharhiniformes (ground shark)
• Two dorsal fins without spines
• Anal fin present
• five gill slits are present
• gill rakers are absent
• eyes with nictidating fold or membrane
• spiracles present or absent
• intestinal valve of spiral or scroll type
• development may be oviparous/viviparous/ovoviviparous

5. Family carcharhinidae (Greek : karcharos – sharp shark , rhinos –
nose)
• Five gills , the 5th behind the origin of pectoral fin
• round eyes with internal nictidating memberane
• No norsal grooves or barbles
• Usually no spiracles
• Teeth are blade like with one cusp
• Develpoement – viviparous

6. Genus - Carcharhinus
Have High number of species in its family .ie,36 species and 8 extinct species
Species characteristics (C.brevipinna)
• fins have no spines or rays
• 1st dorsal fin is small , no inter dorsal ridges
• 2nd dorsal ,anal , pectorals and caudal fins are dark b;ack or grey tipped
• Body is slender with a long narrow pointed snout and covered with dermal denticles
• Grey above and white below with conspicuous white band on sides
• Long gill slits are present
• Small narrow cusped teeth are present

8. Species biology
• Found on warm and temperate waters
• Feed on pelagic bony fisess
• Viviparous bears upto 3-15 cups , forms school
• Highly migratory off ( florida , lousiana , gulf of Mexico)
• Makes vertical spinning leaps out of water as a feed technique(spins through school of small
fishes and breaks the surface)
• Marked as vulnerable species and consumed by humans for fins and livers
• Life span 15 to 20 yrs
• Common length 250cm and weight 89.7 kg

10. CLOSELY RELATED SPECIES
• C.Limbatus
• C.Johnsoni
• C.maculipinnis
• C.Amblyrhinocoides
• C.Brachyurus
• Dusky shark,sandbar shark,bull shark, blacktail shark etc……are some of the
closely related species of spinner shark
• Spinner sharks are frequently mistaken for black tip shark and they can be
differentiated by the dark tip of anal fin in spinner shark which is absent in blacktip
shark

12. Thank You
BY
JENI JM