Aprionodon caparti Poll, 1951 Carcharhinus johnsoni Smith, 1951 Carcharias brevipinna Müller & Henle, 1839 Isogomphodon maculipinnis Poey, 1865 Longmania calamaria Whitley, 1944 Uranga nasuta Whitley, 1943 The spinner shark (Carcharhinus brevipinna) is a type of requiem shark, in the family Carcharhinidae, named for the spinning leaps it makes as a part of its feeding strategy.

Spinner sharks are swift and gregarious predators that feed on a wide variety of small bony fishes and cephalopods.

Like other members of its family, the spinner shark is viviparous, with females bearing litters of three to 20 young every other year.

Spinner sharks are valued by commercial fisheries across their range for their meat, fins, liver oil, and skin.

The spinner shark was originally described as Carcharias (Aprion) brevipinna by Johannes Peter Müller and Friedrich Gustav Jakob Henle in their 1839 Systematische Beschreibung der Plagiostomen, based on the mounted skin of a 79-cm-long specimen collected off Java.

[3] The tooth shape and coloration of this species varies significantly with age and between geographical regions, which caused much taxonomic confusion.

In the Western Atlantic Ocean, it occurs from North Carolina to the northern Gulf of Mexico, including the Bahamas and Cuba, and from southern Brazil to Argentina.

In the Indian Ocean, it is found from South Africa and Madagascar, to the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, to India and nearby islands, to Java and Sumatra.

[2][3] Parasitological evidence suggests that Indian Ocean spinner sharks have passed through the Suez Canal into the Mediterranean Sea, becoming Lessepsian migrants.

[2] The body is densely covered with diamond-shaped dermal denticles with seven (rarely five) shallow horizontal ridges.

[2][3] The spinner shark is a fast, active swimmer that sometimes forms large schools, segregated by age and sex.

[3] Spinner sharks feed primarily on small bony fish, including tenpounders, sardines, herring, anchovies, sea catfish, lizardfish, mullets, bluefish, tunas, bonito, croakers, jacks, mojarras, and tongue-soles.

The shark's momentum at the end of these spiraling runs often carries it into the air, giving it its common name.

[13][14] Young are birthed in coastal nursery areas such as bays, beaches, and high-salinity estuaries in water deeper than 5 m (16 ft).

[14] Ordinarily, spinner sharks do not pose a substantial danger to humans; they do not perceive large mammals as prey, as their small, narrow teeth are adapted for grasping rather than cutting.

The meat is marketed under the name "blacktip shark" in the United States, due to that species being considered superior in quality by consumers.

[14] The spinner shark is also highly regarded by recreational fishers, being described as a "spectacular fighter" that often leaps out of the water.