Genus: Negaprion, Lemon Shark, Lemon Sharks

NEGAPRION

LEMON SHARKS

Body stout; head broad and flat with broad round to bluntly angular snout; eyes round, small, with lower eyelid; no spiracle; lip furrows at corners of mouth; mouth arched, ends well past eye; upper and lower front teeth with a single narrowly triangular straight point, mainly smooth, large fish may have serrations on bases of upper teeth, teeth straight at front, oblique at sides; five gill slits, last two over pectoral; two dorsal fins, first with origin just behind pectoral, second dorsal 80-100% size of first, over anal; no ridge between dorsals; pectorals broad; anal fin large, a little smaller than second dorsal, with strongly notched rear margin; pit on top of tail base is longitudinal, straight; tail fin strongly asymmetrical, lower lobe of tail well developed, upper lobe with undulating ridge along its top edge, and a notch under its tip, pits at its base.

This circumtropical and warm temperate genus contains two species, one of which occurs in both the tropical eastern Pacific and the tropical east and west Atlantic.