nurse shark

Related to nurse shark: Grey nurse shark

nurse shark

Any of various bottom-feeding sharks of the family Ginglymostomatidae, having long barbels near the mouth and feeding chiefly at night, especially Ginglymostoma cirratum of tropical and subtropical waters.

[From nurse, any of various kinds of dogfishes or sharks, alteration of earlier nusse, perhaps from earlier and dialectal huss, dogfish (by reanalysis of an huss, a dogfish as a nusse), from Middle English husk, of unknown origin.]

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

nurse shark

(Animals) any of various sharks of the family Orectolobidae, such as Ginglymostoma cirratum of the Atlantic Ocean, having an external groove on each side of the head between the mouth and nostril

[C15: nusse fisshe (later influenced in spelling by nurse), perhaps from division of obsolete an huss shark, dogfish (of uncertain origin) as a nuss]

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

nurse′ shark`

any scavenging shark of the family Orectolobidae, having a barbel and deep groove at either side of the mouth, esp. Ginglymostoma cirratum.

[1850–55]

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Noun

nurse shark - small bottom-dwelling shark of warm shallow waters on both coasts of North America and South America and from southeast Asia to Australia

Ginglymostoma cirratum

shark - any of numerous elongate mostly marine carnivorous fishes with heterocercal caudal fins and tough skin covered with small toothlike scales

genus Ginglymostoma, Ginglymostoma - nurse sharks

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References in periodicals archive ?

Divers Randel Sands and Ron Nash were recently cleaning up coral reef debris when they found the nurse shark tangled in a fishing rod tied to the reef of Lauderdale-by-the-sea.

Divers Rescue Shark Tangled To Fishing Rod, 'Tied To Reef' Underwater

These include Mangra (Tawny Nurse Shark, Graceful Shark, and Grey Reef Shark), Bamboli (Spadenose Shark), Barcali (Snaggletooth Shark), Pari (Thresher Shark), Kali Tili (Silky Shark), Bili (Zebra Shark), Aam (Oceanic Whitetip Shark), Narmani (Tiger Shark), and Gole Mangra (Milk Shark), to name a few.

Think swimming with sharks is scary? Karachi eats them everyday

3) was greatest for the nurse shark, which was observed in videos from ~14% of sites (10 of 72 sites), followed by the tiger (8%, 6 sites), spinner (7%, 5 sites), sandbar (5%, 4 sites), and Atlantic sharpnose (4%, 3 sites) sharks.

Comparison of video and diver observations of sharks from a fishery-independent trap-video survey off east-central Florida, including utility of an alternative method of video analysis

"I want to get out:" Boy screams as 'harmless' nurse shark attacks him in sea

Man has miracle escape after shark bit chunk out of his HEAD; WARNING - GRAPHIC CONTENT: The incident in the Bahamas was captured by a fellow spear fisherman who was wearing a GoPro at the time

A nurse shark swims at the Hol Chan Marine Reserve coral reef in the outskirts of San Pedro village in Belize, on June 7, 2018 (AFP / Pedro PARDO/ MANILA BULLETIN)

Saving the underwater wonder world of Belize's reef

Use of natural marks on population estimates of the nurse shark, Ginglymostoma cirratum, at Atol das Rocas Biological Reserve, Brazil.

Vertical movements of the southern stingray, Dasyatis americana (Hildebrand & Schroeder, 1928) in the Biological Reserve of the Rocas Atoll, Brazil

POPULATION: 4.3 million people which is around 20% of Australia's total population MARINE LIFE: Grey Nurse Shark, Seadragons, Penguins, Humpback Whales, Green Sea Turtles, Bottlenose Dolphins and Pineapple fish.

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A number of shark species, including the Daggernose shark and Gray nurse shark are on the endangered list.

National Shark Awareness Day: 10 things you're told about sharks and whether they're true or false; We uncover ten myths you're told about sharks and tell you whether they're true or false

He is comforted by many different marine characters, including Lewis the Lobster, Nancy the Nurse Shark, Lolita the Latina Leatherback Turtle, Harriet the Humpback Whale, Konky the Conch, and even a human diver.

Pluto the Starfish

The oldest fish we have is a nurse shark," Nelson says.

Inland scuba diving made possible at grantsville's bonneville seabase

Alan Saunders was bitten by a Grey Nurse Shark while fishing at a beach in the town of Crowdy Head.