Sphyrnidae

Winghead shark

Eusphyra blochii

A winged head spanning half its body

• Brown
• White
• Tropical
• Nearshore
• Globally widespread
• Marine fish
• Fusiform
• Large
• Tropical fish

Possessing the most anatomically radical head structure of any living vertebrate, the winghead shark features an extraordinarily wide, wing-like cephalofoil spanning up to half of its entire body length. These sweeping, wing-shaped lateral blades extend outwards like an airplane wing, positioning the eyes at the furthest possible lateral vantage points while the nostrils form broad, deep grooves along almost the entire front margin. The slender body is shaded in brownish-grey along the back with a pale underside, tapering into a slender caudal peduncle and asymmetrical tail. Native to the shallow coastal waters and brackish estuaries of the tropical Indo-West Pacific, its range extends from the Persian Gulf and India through Southeast Asia to northern Australia and the South China Sea, depths ranging from surface to forty meters. The immense head provides unparalleled panoramic vision and a massive electromagnetic sensory swath for detecting small teleost fishes, mantis shrimps, and cephalopods hiding in turbid muddy waters. Viviparous with litters up to twenty-five pups, maximum recorded total length reaches one hundred and eighty-six centimetres.

Sources: FishBase & Australian Museum — Winghead Shark, Eusphyra blochii