WHAT TO LOOK FOR: A small slender cylindrical shark, mouth well ahead of eyes, dorsal fins about the same size and a white-ringed black oval spot on flank above the pectoral fin.

COLOUR: Tan with scattered black spots, and a very large white-ringed black oval spot on its flank.

SIZE: Maximum total length about 3.5 ft [1.07 mtrs]

TEETH: Small and pointed with medial cusp.

HABITAT: Inshore bottom sharks, commonly in the intertidal, in tidepools or coral reefs close inshore. They are abundant on reef flats of islets in the Great Barrier Reef.

DISTRIBUTION: Western South Pacific: Australia (Northern Territory, Western Australia, Queensland and New South Wales), New Guinea, and possibly Malaysia and Sumatra .

BIOLOGY:
Prey - Invertebrates: worms, crabs, shrimp, small shellfish, and probably small bottom fishes.
Reproduction- Oviparous

BEHAVIOUR: By day this small shark usually remains concealed beneath clumps of coral. At night it roams the reef flats using its muscular leg-like paired fins to clamber on the reef and into crevices.

DISPOSITION: Usually placid. When grabbed by a diver the shark violently contorts its body in an attempt to free itself.
Danger to humans - none

NOTE: The speckled carpetshark, Hemiscyllium tn'speculare, is a similar species with a similar range (Australian waters, and possibly Indonesia) that grows to a length of 2 ft [60 cm]. It also has a large black circular spot above each pectoral fin The black spot lacks a white ring, but it is partly edged with a few large dark spots, and large and small dark spots on the shark's back form a reticular pattern