Requiem sharks are one of the largest and best-known families of sharks. Their torpedo-shaped bodies range in length from less than a metre to over seven metres. Most are voracious predators of other fish, octopus, marine mammals and seabirds. The 52 species are all quite similar in appearance, so telling individual species apart can be very tricky. Tiger, lemon and whitetip reef sharks are some of the more familiar species; the family also includes the intriguingly named bignose, nervous and daggernose sharks. Requiem sharks are responsible for a high proportion of the reported attacks on humans.

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