The True Sharks 



539 



Family Cetorhinidae, or Basking Sharks. The largest of all 

 living sharks is the great basking shark (Cetorhinus maximus), 

 constituting the family of Cetorhinida. This is the largest of 

 all fishes, reaching a length of thirty-six feet and an enormous 



FIG. 332. Carcharodon megalodon Charlesworth. 



(After Zittel.) 



Miocene. Family Lamnidce 



weight. It is a dull and sluggish animal of the northern seas, 

 almost as inert as a sawlog, often floating slowly southward in 

 pairs in the spring and caught occasionally by whalers for its 

 liver. When caught, its huge flabby head spreads out wide on 

 the ground, its weight in connection with the great size of the 

 mouth-cavity rendering it shapeless. Although so clumsy 

 and without spirit, it is said that a blow with its tail will crush 



