Facts About Sawfish
With their very distinctive, flattened snout, sawfish are intriguing animals. What is their "saw?" How is it used? Where do sawfish live? Learn the answers to these questions and more below.
The "teeth" on the sawfish's snout are not true teeth, but modified scales. A sawfish's real teeth are located inside its mouth, which is on the fish's underside.
There is some debate over the number of sawfish species, especially since sawfish are relatively understudied. According to the World Register of Marine Species, there are 4 species of sawfish. The largetooth sawfish and the smalltooth sawfish occur in the U.S.
Sawfish can reach lengths over 20 feet. The smalltooth sawfish might be small in teeth size, but not in length. According to NOAA, the maximum length of a smalltooth sawfish is 25 feet. The green sawfish, which lives off Africa, Asia and Australia, can reach lengths of at least 24 feet.
Sawfish eat fish and crustaceans, which they can find using the sensory capabilities of their saw, and which they can kill by slashing their saw back and forth. The saw may also be used to detect and dislodge prey on the ocean bottom.
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