#2061 · 🦈 sharks & rays
Tawny Nurse Shark
🇳🇱 Geelbruine verpleegsterhaai ·Nebrius ferrugineus
8 photos from iNaturalist (Creative Commons) · credits & licences
what is it?
The tawny nurse shark ( Nebrius ferrugineus ) is a species of carpet shark in the family Ginglymostomatidae, and the only extant member of the genus Nebrius .
base stats
Bars compare against all animals on log scales: up to 300,000 Dutch and 600,000 worldwide sightings (the most-seen species), 150 t (blue whale), 30 m and 400 years (Greenland shark).
fun facts
- No confirmed wild sightings in the Netherlands on iNaturalist: you'd have to travel for this one.
- 1,161 observations worldwide on iNaturalist.
- Scientifically named by René Lesson in 1831 (195 years ago).
- Listed as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List.
fact sheet
- English
- Tawny Nurse Shark
- Nederlands
- Geelbruine verpleegsterhaai
- scientific name
- Nebrius ferrugineus
- class
- Chondrichthyes
- order
- Orectolobiformes
- family
- Ginglymostomatidae
- IUCN Red List
- VU · vulnerable
- sightings in NL
- 0
- sightings worldwide
- 1,161
- GBIF records in NL
- 0
- weight
- —
- length
- —
- lifespan
- —
- named
- 1831 by René Lesson
IUCN in Dutch: kwetsbaar. Blank means the sources don't say.
relatives· Ginglymostomatidae
Sources: iNaturalist taxon 49962, Wikidata Q751258, GBIF 2417496, Wikipedia (EN), Wikipedia (NL). Intro text from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0).Updated 2026-10-24.