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The blacktip shark, Carcharhinus limbatus, is a large shark
Shark

Sharks are a type of fish with a full Cartilage skeleton and a highly Streamlines, streaklines and pathlinesd body. They respire with the use of five to seven gill slits....
, native to the continental
Continental shelf

The continental shelf is the extended perimeter of each continent and associated coastal plain, and was part of the continent during the glacial periods, but is undersea during Ice age such as the current epoch by relatively shallow seas and Bay....
 and insular shelves of tropical and warm temperate seas around the world.

The blacktip is a large fairly stout shark, grey in colour, normally with black-tipped fins. It has a long, narrow, pointed snout, long gill slits, a large first dorsal fin
Dorsal fin

A wikt:dorsal fin is a fin located on the backs of some fish, whales, dolphins, and porpoises, as well as the ichthyosaurs. Its main purpose is to stabilize the animal against rolling and assist in sudden turns....
 and fairly large second dorsal.

blacktip shark was first described by Achille Valenciennes
Achille Valenciennes

Achille Valenciennes was a France zoologist.Valenciennes was born in Paris, and studied under Georges Cuvier. Valenciennes' study of parasitic worms in humans made an important contribution to the study of parasitology....
 in Müller
Johannes Peter Müller

Johannes Peter M?ller , was a Germany physiologist, comparative anatomy, and ichthyology not only known for his discoveries but also for his ability to synthesize knowledge....
 & Henle
Friedrich Gustav Jakob Henle

Friedrich Gustav Jakob Henle was a Germany physician, pathologist and anatomist. He is credited with the discovery of the loop of Henle in the kidney....
 (1839) as Carcharias (Prionodon) limbatus.






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The blacktip shark, Carcharhinus limbatus, is a large shark
Shark

Sharks are a type of fish with a full Cartilage skeleton and a highly Streamlines, streaklines and pathlinesd body. They respire with the use of five to seven gill slits....
, native to the continental
Continental shelf

The continental shelf is the extended perimeter of each continent and associated coastal plain, and was part of the continent during the glacial periods, but is undersea during Ice age such as the current epoch by relatively shallow seas and Bay....
 and insular shelves of tropical and warm temperate seas around the world.

The blacktip is a large fairly stout shark, grey in colour, normally with black-tipped fins. It has a long, narrow, pointed snout, long gill slits, a large first dorsal fin
Dorsal fin

A wikt:dorsal fin is a fin located on the backs of some fish, whales, dolphins, and porpoises, as well as the ichthyosaurs. Its main purpose is to stabilize the animal against rolling and assist in sudden turns....
 and fairly large second dorsal.

Taxonomy

The blacktip shark was first described by Achille Valenciennes
Achille Valenciennes

Achille Valenciennes was a France zoologist.Valenciennes was born in Paris, and studied under Georges Cuvier. Valenciennes' study of parasitic worms in humans made an important contribution to the study of parasitology....
 in Müller
Johannes Peter Müller

Johannes Peter M?ller , was a Germany physiologist, comparative anatomy, and ichthyology not only known for his discoveries but also for his ability to synthesize knowledge....
 & Henle
Friedrich Gustav Jakob Henle

Friedrich Gustav Jakob Henle was a Germany physician, pathologist and anatomist. He is credited with the discovery of the loop of Henle in the kidney....
 (1839) as Carcharias (Prionodon) limbatus. Other synonyms that have been used are Carcharias (Prionodon) pleurotaenia, Carcharias microps, Carcharias (Prionodon) muelleri, Carcharias maculipinna, Carcharias ehrenbergi, Carcharias aethlorus, Gymnorrhinus abbreviatus, Carcharias phorcys, and Carcharhinus natator. The accepted scientific name is Carcharhinus limbatus (Müller & Henle, 1839). The epithet limbatus ("bordered") refers to the black tips of its fins.

Behaviour and diet

Like its close relative the spinner shark
Spinner shark

The spinner shark, Carcharhinus brevipinna, is a requiem shark of the family Carcharhinidae, found in the western Atlantic Ocean between latitudes 40th parallel north and 38th parallel south....
, C. brevipinna, the blacktip shark is a fast swimming shark capable not only of breaching, or leaping out of the water, but also of rotating (spinning) several times before re-entering the water. Some consider it non-aggressive and unlikely to attack humans without stimulus, but it is blamed for the majority of shark bites in Florida
Florida

Florida is a U.S. state located in the Southeastern United States of the United States, bordering Alabama to the northwest and Georgia to the northeast....
 numbering several dozen a year. It is, however, highly probable that the vast majority of attacks attributed to this species are a case of mistaken identity, as the aggressively territorial Bull shark
Bull shark

The bull shark, Carcharhinus leucas, also known as the bull whaler, Zambezi shark or unofficially known as Zambi in Africa and Nicaragua shark in Nicaragua, is a shark common worldwide in warm, shallow waters along coasts and in rivers....
 is probably responsible for the majority of attacks within warm coastal waters.

There is some evidence of segregation with some populations showing separation between groups of adult males and non-pregnant females on the one hand and pregnant females and young on the other.

Blacktip sharks feed mainly on a wide range of bony fish: sardine
Sardine

Sardines, or pilchards, are a group of several types of small, oily fish related to herrings, family Clupeidae. Sardines were named after the island of Sardinia, where they were once in abundance....
s, herring
Herring

Herring are small, oily fish of the genus Clupea found in the shallow, temperate waters of the North Pacific Ocean and the North Atlantic Ocean, including the Baltic Sea....
, mullet
Mullet

Mullet may refer to:...
, jacks
Carangidae

Carangidae is a family of fish which includes the jacks, pompanos, jack mackerels, and scads.They are marine fish found in the Atlantic, Indian Ocean and Pacific Oceans....
, and Spanish mackerel
Mackerel

Mackerel is a common name applied to a number of different species of fish, mostly, but not exclusively, from the family Scombridae. They occur in all tropical and temperate seas....
, among others; the young of other sharks including dusky shark
Dusky shark

The dusky shark, Carcharhinus obscurus, is one of the larger species of shark, reaching 350 kg. The dusky shark is also known as the black whaler, and dusky whaler....
s; and some cephalopod
Cephalopod

The cephalopods are the mollusc class Cephalopoda characterized by bilateral symmetry, a prominent head, and a modification of the mollusk foot, a muscular hydrostat, into the form of cephalopod arms or tentacles....
s and crustacean
Crustacean

Crustaceans are a large group of arthropods, comprising almost 52,000 described species , and are usually treated as a subphylum . They include various familiar animals, such as crabs, lobsters, crayfish, shrimp, krill and barnacles....
s.

Reproduction

The blacktip shark is viviparous and has a yolk-sac placenta with 1 - 10 pups per litter (4 - 7 as a mean figure). The gestation
Gestation

Gestation is the carrying of an embryo or fetus inside a female viviparous animal. Mammals during mammalian pregnancy can have one or more gestations at the same time ....
 period is believed to be 10 to 12 months and females are thought to breed every other year.

Scientists have recently confirmed that females of the species are capable of parthenogenesis
Parthenogenesis

Parthenogenesis is an asexual form of reproduction found in females where growth and development of embryos or seeds occurs without fertilization by a male....
, or reproduction without fertilization by a male. Although little is known about this process, it has been confirmed in hammerhead shark
Hammerhead shark

The hammerhead sharks are a group of sharks in the family Sphyrnidae, so named for the unusual and distinctive structure of their heads, which are flattened and laterally extended into a "hammer" shape called a "cephalofoil"....
s as well.

Importance to humans

Its flesh is used fresh, dried or salted for consumption, its hide is used for leather and its liver for oil. It is occasionally taken as a game fish and often by shore anglers. It has not been indicated in unprovoked attacks against humans but is potentially dangerous.

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