Largetooth sawfish
Adults are primarily found in estuaries and marine waters to a depth of , but mostly less than . Nevertheless, the species does appear to have a greater affinity for freshwater habitats than the smalltooth sawfish ("P. pectinata"), green sawfish ("P. zijsron"), and dwarf sawfish ("P. clavata"). Largetooth sawfish from the population in Lake Nicaragua appear to spend most, if not all, of their life in freshwater, but tagging surveys indicate that at least some do move between this lake and the sea. Captive studies show that this euryhaline species can thrive long-term in both salt and freshwater, regardless of its age, and that an acclimation from salt to freshwater is faster than the opposite. In captivity they are known to be agile (even swimming backwards), have an unusual ability to "climb" with the use of the pectoral fins and they can jump far out of the water; a individual jumped to a height of . It has been suggested that this may be adaptions for traversing medium-sized waterfalls and rapids when moving upriver. They are generally found in areas with a bottom consisting of sand, mud or silt. The preferred water temperature is between , and or colder is lethal.
Sawfish
Sawfish have a strong shark-like body, a flat underside and a flat head. "Pristis" sawfish have a rough sandpaper-like skin texture because of the covering of dermal denticles, but in "Anoxypristis" the skin is largely smooth. The mouth and nostrils are placed on the underside of the head. There are about 88–128 small, blunt-edged teeth in the upper jaw of the mouth and about 84–176 in the lower jaw (not to be confused with the teeth on the saw). These are arranged in 10–12 rows on each jaw, and somewhat resemble a cobblestone road. They have small eyes and behind each is a spiracle, which is used to draw water past the gills. The gill slits, five on each side, are placed on the underside of the body near the base of the pectoral fins. The position of the gill openings separates them from the superficially similar, but generally much smaller (up to long) sawsharks, where the slits are placed on the side of the neck. Unlike sawfish, sawsharks also have a pair of long barbels on the rostrum ("saw").