Carcharhinidae

Lemon shark

Negaprion brevirostris

Yellow brown pairs swimming side by side

• Gray
• White
• Yellow
• Tropical
• Nearshore
• Globally widespread
• Marine fish
• Fusiform
• Large
• Tropical fish

Camouflaged in warm sandy shallows, the lemon shark is a muscular requiem shark renowned for its distinct coloration and sophisticated social nursery behaviors. Its stocky, powerful frame is washed in a pale yellowish-brown or olive-yellow hue along the back and flanks, allowing it to blend seamlessly into sunlit sandy sea floors. A signature anatomical characteristic is its two dorsal fins, which are unusually similar in shape and nearly equal in size, accompanied by a short, broad, blunt snout. Ranging through the subtropical and tropical Atlantic and eastern Pacific coastal waters from the surface down to ninety meters depth, it frequents mangrove creeks, coral flats, and shallow enclosed bays. Juveniles spend years in sheltered red mangrove lagoons, exhibiting strong site fidelity and complex social groupings, while adults cruise coastal reefs hunting benthic catfishes, mullets, stingrays, and crabs. Viviparous with litters up to seventeen pups, its recorded maximum total length reaches three hundred and forty centimetres.

Sources: NOAA Fisheries — Lemon Shark, Negaprion brevirostris