Nurse Shark

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nurse shark, (family Ginglymostomatidae), common name for any shark in the family Ginglymostomatidae, which is made up of the genera Ginglymostoma, Nebrius, and Pseudoginglymostoma. In addition to the common Atlantic nurse shark (G. cirratum), the family includes the tawny nurse shark (N. ferrugineus) and the shorttail nurse shark (P. brevicaudatum). They are not related to the sand tiger shark (Carcharias taurus)—a type of sand shark inhabiting the waters above the continental shelves in most warm and temperate regions—which is sometimes referred to as the gray nurse shark.

A common description of the origin of the name nurse shark suggests that the sound they make when feeding at the surface resembles a nursing animal. However, the name is likely derived from the word nusse, a Middle English form of the word nurse. Nusse may have originated from the slurring of the Middle English word huss, which was itself used in the 1500s to describe cat sharks or other large fish that were probably sharks.