It is common in the tropical Indian and western Pacific Oceans, where it forms large schools in shallow water.

This species exhibits the most advanced mode of viviparity of any fish, in which the developed embryos form a highly complex placental connection to the mother at a very small size.

This fish is also known as mori in Goa[2] The first scientific description of the spadenose shark was published in 1838 by the German biologists Johannes Peter Müller and Friedrich Gustav Jakob Henle, in their Systematische Beschreibung der Plagiostomen.

[3] The generic name Scoliodon is derived from the Greek skolex ("worm") and odon ("tooth"), while the specific epithet laticaudus comes from the Latin latus ("broad" or "wide") and cauda ("tail").

[5] In addition, anatomical similarities suggest this species to be the closest living relative of the hammerhead sharks, which diverged from the other carcharhinids some time before the Middle Eocene (48.6–37.2 million years ago).

[6] A small, stocky species, the spadenose shark has a broad head with a distinctive, highly flattened, trowel-shaped snout.

[3] The spadenose shark is found in the western Indo-Pacific from Tanzania to South and Southeast Asia, as far east as Java and Borneo and as far north as Taiwan and Japan.

The placental stalk, formed from the yolk sac, has an unusual columnar structure and is covered by numerous long appendiculae that support a massive capillary network, providing a large surface area for gas exchange.

The placental tissue contacts the uterine wall in a unique structure called the "trophonematal cup", where nutrients are transferred from the mother's bloodstream into the placenta.

This common species is taken by artisanal and commercial fisheries across its range, using floating and fixed gillnets, longlines, bottom nets, fish traps, trawls, and hook-and-line.