Diagnosis

A fairly large, stocky shark with dorsal fins and anal fin essentially subequal in size; dorsally-flattened conical snout with mouth extending behind the eyes; small eyes (diameter about 1%TL) without nictitating eyelids and of rather feline appearance; teeth large, unserrated; protruding and dagger-like with prominent pair of lateral cusps; fourth upper-tooth (intermediate) much smaller than third and fifth. First dorsal fin origin nearer to pelvic fins that pectorals; pectoral fins rather short, broad and paddle-like in shape. No keels on caudal peduncle. Caudal fin strongly asymmetrical, upper lobe measuring ca. 27%TL and ventral lobe ca. 11%; precaudal pit present. Colour dorsally ranging from light brown, sandy-brown or grey-brown and with a conspicuous bronzy sheen in life; darker mottled spots often present on body and caudal fin which may fade with maturity.  Ventral surfaces white; demarcation between dorsal and ventral pigment abrupt in places although fading rapidly after death.

Size

Attaining 318cm TL but generally smaller to about 300cm; size at birth 95 to 105cm.

Status and Distribution

N.E. Atlantic: Restricted to southern areas below, where rare or occasional. Northern range limit probably at southern Iberian peninsula; abundance increases slowly southwards along the coasts of Morrocco, Mauritania, Western Sahara and to Senegal, where considered moderately common; also found at the Cape Verde Islands and Canaries; range continues south to equatorial West Africa.
Mediterranean Sea: Generally rare in the region and perhaps declining. Occasional and sporadic from Gibraltar along the Spanish coasts to the Gulf of Lyons; also Balearics; Morocco, Melilla, Algeria and Tunisia along North African coasts; Western Italy (Tyrrhenian Sea, Sardinia, Elba, Ponza, and other insular sites); Sicily, Isole Pelagie and Malta ; Ionian Sea coastline of Italy (Calabria); Adriatic Sea but increasingly scarce there.  Greeks seas including the Aegean, but sporadic; generally insular (e.g., Cyclades, Dodecanese).

Biology

A coastal, littoral shark inhabiting zones from the surfline to some distance offshore, but within a depth range of surface to 200m, though normally less than 70m. Sandtigers are normally encountered on or near the bottom but also sometimes close inshore at the surface (the writer and others observed one at the surface adjacent to rocks on the eastern coast of Rhodes, Greece). Mediterranean examples are more commonly found in close association with insular or headland localities, particularly over rocky or boulder-strewn seabeds but also sandy flats in bays and around offshore submerged reefs and banks (e.g., Aventure Bank, Sicilian Channel) where fish are plentiful.  These sharks form large aggregations for courtship and feeding elsewhere in their range in regions where they are common (such as off South Africa and Australia), but Eastern Atlantic and Mediterranean captures infer a considerably more diffuse population as even in areas where this shark is taken annually (Sicily), captures are nominal.  It is likely that this species migrates southwards in the winter months, but catch-data throughout the region is insufficient to establish seasonal or areal trends.  A strong but slow swimmer that is often found grouper-like, hanging virtually motionless just above the bottom, this species is more active nocturnally; it will gulp air at the surface and retain it within the stomach to acheive near neutral buoyancy, rather as by means of a makeshift swimbladder. Sandtigers are active predators of a wide range of bony fish and elasmobranchs, including sea-basses, mullets, jacks, flatfish and some scombroids;  small sharks such as Mustelus  spp.; rays, cephalopods, crabs and other benthic invertebrates. Oviphagous, with uterine cannibalism.  Having consumed other fertilised ova, one dominant embryo survives in each egg-case and, soon after hatching within the uterus, develops teeth. It then actively devours other hatched siblings in utero, eventually surviving as one of just two offspring - i.e., one in each uterus. Gestation is about 9 months to one year, with pups born at a comparatively large size (ca. 100cm). Females mature at about 220 cm; males 220-260cm or above. Young Mediterranean examples have been taken in the Sicilian Channel, inferring a possible pupping or nursery zone in at least that area, but reproductive ecology in the region is scantily known.