42 NKW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



extending from the back almost around the throat, all of them 

 in advance of the pectorals; first dorsal large, midway between 

 pectorals and ventrals; second dorsal and anal small; caudal fin 

 lunate, the upper lobe considerably the larger; caudal peduncle 

 keeled; pectorals and ventrals large. Brain very small. Size 

 very large. 



20 Cetorhinus maximus (Gunner) 



Basking Shark; Elephant Shark 



Squalus maximus GUNNER, Trondhj. 'Selsk. Skrift, III, 33, tab. 2; IV, 14, 



tab. 3, 1765; MITCHILL, Trans. Lit. & Phil. Soc. N. Y. I, 486, 1815. 

 Selachus maximus DE KAY, N. Y. Fauna, Fishes, p. 357, pi. 63, fig. 208 



(partly copied from Le Sueur), 1842; STOREK, Hist. Fish. Mass. 253, 



pi. XXXVII, fig. 3, 1867. 

 CetorJiinus maximus JORDAN & GILBERT, Bull. 16, U. S. Nat. Mus. 31, 1883; 



JORDAN & EVERMANN, Bull. 47, U. S. Nat. Mus. 51, pi. VII, fig. 23, 



1896. 



Body very stout, the skin wrinkled, rough, beset with small 

 spines, its greatest depth contained about five times in the total 

 length, and equaling about three fourths of the length of the 

 head; caudal fin lunate, the upper lobe the larger, about equal 

 to the depth of body; caudal peduncle keeled; snout smooth, 

 blunt, nearly half the length of head; mouth moderate; the teeth 

 very small and numerous, conical, without cusps or serratures, 

 each jaw with six or seven rows, about 200 in each row; spiracles 

 minute, above the corners of the mouth; eye very small, with- 

 out nictitating membrane; gill openings very wide, extending 

 from the back almost around the throat, all of them in front 

 of the pectorals; gill-rakers slender, long and close set, resemb- 

 ling whalebone, whence the name, bone shark; first dorsal large, 

 triangular, midway between pectorals and ventrals; second 

 dorsal small, but larger than the anal; pectoral large, reaching 

 a little past the dorsal origin when extended; ventral large, its 

 length nearly one third the length of the head. Color dark 

 slate or leaden above, lighter beneath. 



The basking shark reaches a length of nearly 40 feet and is 

 the largest of the sharks. It is an inhabitant of Arctic seas, 

 coming southward as far as Portugal, Virginia and California. 



