Pristis sawfish

Skeletal specimen of cartilaginous sawfish (Pristis) skull, narrow sawfish Anoxypristis cuspidata.

Narrow sawfish reach sexual maturity at 200 cm TBL (total body length) for males, and 225 cm TBL for females. The portion we have makes up around a third of the TBL, so at 72 cm in length, this specimen must be from either an adult male, or a female on the borderline of sexual maturity. As there is no way to sex a sawfish from this portion of a specimen (and as this species grows to at least 350 cm TBL), I think “young adult� is a reasonable response if asked… as that would be true whether it is a male or a female.

object
MUSEUM NUMBER
HC.1999.1712
COLLECTION
MEASUREMENTS
overall: 350 x 150 x 723 mm
MATERIAL/TECHNIQUE
animal remains
CATEGORY
Education Handling Collection: Natural History
LOCATION
Hands on Base > Display > Case 25
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