AY Honors/Species Account/Negaprion brevirostris

The lemon shark, Negaprion brevirostris, is a shark belonging to the family Carcharhinidae that can grow Template:Convert long.

holy cows!

Reproduction

Lemon sharks are viviparous, females giving birth to between 4 and 17 young every other year in warm and shallow lagoons. The young have to fend for themselves and remain in shallow water near mangroves until they grow larger. With increasing size, the sharks venture further away from their birth place. At maturity at a size of 1.5 to 2 m and an age of 12 to 15 years, they leave shallow water and move into deeper waters offshore. However, little is known of this life stage. Maximum recorded length and weight is 340 cm and 183 kg. They can be extremely aggressive and protective if young sharks are around.

Recent work in genetics by Drs. Kevin Feldheim, Sonny Gruber and Mary Ashley may suggest that adult sharks move over hundreds of km to mate, or populations far apart may have been separated in recent time. Further research in this area would be of immense importance for the understanding of the lemon shark's breeding behaviour and ecology.

The magnetic field

All sharks have electroreceptors concentrated in their heads called the Ampullae of Lorenzini. These receptors detect electrical pulses emitted by potential prey. Lemon sharks are bottom dwellers but have very poor eyesight and cannot see well to find their food. However, they are equipped with extremely sensitive and accurate magnetic sensors in the nose.

See also

• List of sharks

References

• Template:IUCN2006 Database entry includes justification for why this species is near threatened
• Template:ITIS
• Template:FishBase species
• Washington Post, 2005, Aug. 22nd: "Scientists Fear Oceans on the Cusp Of a Wave of Marine Extinctions"

External links

• Lemon shark facts and pictures