Sawfish are rays with a distinctive flattened snout lined with tooth-like projections that they use to detect and stun prey.
The snout, called a rostrum, contains electroreceptors that sense the weak electrical fields produced by nearby animals. A sawfish can slash its rostrum through schools of fish or stir sediment to expose crustaceans, then seize the injured prey.
Although sawfish look like sharks, they belong to the ray group and have flattened bodies with gill openings on the underside. Their rostral teeth are not ordinary replaceable teeth; they grow from specialized structures and can be lost or damaged.
Sawfish species occur in tropical and subtropical coastal waters, rivers and estuaries. They are severely threatened by accidental capture in fishing nets because the rostrum easily becomes entangled. Sawfish are also different from sawsharks, which are smaller sharks with side-mounted gill slits.