A huge, filter-feeding, blunt-headed shark with a distinct checkerboard pattern of yellow or white spots, on grey, bluish or blue-grey to green-brown back, white or yellowish underside, with horizontal and vertical stripes on back and sides of body; head broad and flat; snout short; mouth almost terminal, huge and transverse in front of eyes; prominent ridges on body, lowest terminating in a keel on caudal peduncle; nostrils with rudimentary barbels; long nasoral grooves; spiracles close to and larger than eyes; 5 exceptionally large gill openings, the fifth behind pectoral fin.