This species is a huge, vertical tiger-striped shark with a very short or broad, bluntly rounded snout (its length much less than width of mouth), long upper labial furrows (about as long as snout, reaching front of eyes), a big mouth with large, saw-edged, cockscomb-shaped teeth (coarsely serrated with outer edges deeply notched and tips directed obliquely outward); spiracles small, slit-like, but easily visible, caudal keels low. Colour of back dark grey or greyish brown with vertical dark grey to black bars and rectangular spots often forming bars on sides and fins, but fading with growth (Ref. 5578, 9997).