Carcharhinus melanopterus

The blacktip reef shark is a species of requiem shark, in the family Carcharhinidae, which can be easily identified by the prominent black tips on its fins. Among the most abundant sharks inhabiting the tropical coral reefs of the Indian and Pacific Oceans, this species prefers shallow, inshore waters. Its exposed first dorsal fin is a common sight in the region. The blacktip reef shark is usually found over reef ledges and sandy flats, though it has also been known to enter brackish and freshwater environments. It typically attains a length of 1.6 m (5.2 ft). Like other sharks, the females are larger than the males.

Carcharhinus melanopterus

Charles J. Sharp · CC BY-SA 4.0 · via Wikipedia/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.

On record

Recorded, not inferred
Also called
blacktip reef sharkPBDB
Sits inside
CarcharhinusPBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Carcharhiniformes
Life habit
nektonicPBDB, for Carcharhiniformes
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Carcharhiniformes

Time the record covers

At most 6.3 million years on record.

Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 11.63 Mya and 5.333 Mya, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.

Miocene — about 2 of 2 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 0 of 2 occurrences12–11 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences11–11 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences11–11 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences11–11 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences11–10 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences10–10 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences10–9.9 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences9.9–9.7 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences9.7–9.5 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences9.5–9.2 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences9.2–9.0 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences9.0–8.7 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences8.7–8.5 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences8.5–8.2 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences8.2–8.0 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences8.0–7.8 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences7.8–7.5 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences7.5–7.3 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences7.3–7.0 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences7.0–6.8 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences6.8–6.5 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences6.5–6.3 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences6.3–6.0 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences6.0–5.8 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences5.8–5.6 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences5.6–5.3 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences12.1 Mya4.8 Mya

2 occurrences of Carcharhinus melanopterus on record, most of them in the Miocene. The Paleobiology Database records this as a living group, and the chart stops with its fossils rather than at the present. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.

When

2 occurrences

These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.

Found in

2 formations

Varswater — 32.98°S, 18.15°ESeria — 4.81°N, 114.67°E

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The named rock units Carcharhinus melanopterus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed.

Carcharhinus melanopterus and its relatives

Miocene

Where Carcharhinus melanopterus and its relatives were recorded in the Miocene.

Found in the same rock

100 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 2 sites for Carcharhinus melanopterus, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too. The 24 sharing the most are listed.

This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.

Entered from

2 references

Each of the 2 occurrences read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. Entries link to doi.org where the Paleobiology Database holds an identifier, and to its own record where it does not. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content1

Picture of Carcharhinus melanopterus

Credit
Charles J. Sharp
Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Carcharhinus melanopterus was found in Sketchfab.

Smithsonian Open Access and MorphoSource were not reached for this taxon, so this list is what the others held rather than everything there is.

The description on this site

Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0

This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.

Keep going

What may have been alongside itCarcharhinus through timeFormations of the MioceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Quoy and Gaimard 1824)