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Fishery Bulletin 100(4) 



substantial yolk-stomach as expected for a mid-term em- 

 bryo (Mollet et al., 2000). Reports of pregnant females and 

 small juveniles have indicated that white sharks breed in 

 the Mediterranean (Fergusson, 1996). The reported litter 

 size of the Sanzo shark (25-30) is the largest yet recorded 

 for any lamnid shark. Therefore, correct identification of 

 the embryo will also increase our knowledge of maximum 

 fecundity in whichever species is involved. In this note, we 

 report the results of our investigation into the identity of 

 the Sanzo embryo. We first attempted to use morphomet- 

 ries, dentition, and vertebral count and then, for unam- 

 biguous identification, we used skeletal anatomy — namely, 

 the chondro-neurocranium, palatoquadrate, and pectoral 

 girdle. 



Materials and methods 



Materials 



Sanzo embryo (MZUF 5911) The preserved embryo in 

 the "La Specola" Museum of the University of Florence, 

 rediscovered and photographed by Storai-^ in 1992, was 

 undoubtedly the embryo described by Sanzo (1912). 

 Vanni,'* curator of fishes at La Specola, provided us with 

 the following account: "The current collection number 

 5911 MZUF (= Museo Zoologico Universita di Firenze) cor- 

 responds to precedent n.3052 of the "Collezione Centrale 

 dei Vertebrati Italiani" (Italian Central Vertebrate Collec- 

 tion), established by Giglioli in 1877 and now merged with 

 the general collection. In the original catalogue ("libro di 

 magazzino"), E. H. Giglioli himself wrote: "Carcharon Ron- 

 deleti ?? feto. VIII. 1903 Messina. La femmina dal quale 

 fu tolto pesava da 400 a 500 kg e oltre a questo aveva 

 nell'utero 25-30 altri feti nelle medesime condizioni. Avuto 

 dal dr Luigi Sanzo" ("Carcharadon Rondeletii ?? foetus 

 VIII. 1903 Messina.") (The female from which the embryo 

 was taken had a weight between 400 to 500 kg and m 

 addition to this specimen, had 25-30 other fetuses in the 

 same condition. Presented by Luigi Sanzo" ("Carcharadon 

 Rondeletii ?? foetus VIII. 1903 Messina.")). The "Vertebrate 

 Museum of the Superior Institute of Studies in Florence" 

 corresponds exactly to the present "Museo Zoologico 'La 

 Specola' deirUniversita di Firenze." The "Vertebrate 

 Museum" is actually the "Museo Zoologico 'La Specola'"; 

 the "Superior Institute of the Studies in Florence" in 1926 

 became "Universita degli Studi di Firenze" ("University 

 of the Studies of Florence"). If in his paper Sanzo ( 1912) 

 reported that the embryo was collected in 1903 near Mes- 

 sina, then undoubtedly the specimen in question is that 

 preserved at present in the "La Specola" Museum." 



Uchida embryo (SAM-35742) A 35.8-cm-TL female short- 

 fin mako embryo was shipped to the South African 

 Museum in Cape Town in November 2000 (SAM-35742). It 



came from a female (TL=3.37 m, 380 kg) that was caught 

 near Okinawa, Japan, on 15 November 1984 (Uchida et al., 

 1987; Mollet et al., 2000). The litter comprised 16 embryos 

 (11 females) with mean TL = 39.4 cm and mean mass = 

 1.456 kg and was preserved in formalin. A 38.4-cm-TL 

 female embryo of this litter weighed 1.400 kg and the 

 yolk-stomach content weighed 0.937 kg or 66.9% of the 

 total mass (Uchida et al., 1987). 



Morphometries 



Morphometric measurements of the Sanzo embryo were 

 taken by author ADT using the methods and abbrevia- 

 tions of Compagno (1984). Total length (TOT) was mea- 

 sured with the caudal fin in the extended position. In an 

 embryo of this size, TOT is very close to total length (TL) 

 measured with the caudal fin in the natural position. A 

 flexible aluminum tape was used for measurements ex- 

 ceeding 140 mm and rounded to the nearest millimeter 

 Measurements less than 140 mm were made with calipers 

 at 0.2 mm precision. The Uchida embryo was measured six 

 years later by authors LJVC and HFM. 



We compared both ourandSanzo's( 1912) measurements 

 with the morphometries of white sharks less than 4 m TL 

 reported by Mollet et al. ( 1996) and with those of the short- 

 fin makos summarized in Table 1. No morphometries of 

 white sharks of less than 1.26 m TL were available; there- 

 fore we had to use larger specimens for comparison, in- 

 cluding two nearterm embryos reported by Francis ( 1996 ). 

 This approach is reasonable for isometric characters, but 

 it is inappropriate for allometric characters. The short- 

 fin mako data included a shortfin mako litter of similar 

 size to the Sanzo embryo (mean TL=36.2 cm, range 29.5- 

 39.5 cm; Putz and Gilmore litter in Table 1). Moron'' pro- 

 vided additional eye length data from 51 shortfin makos 

 in Moreno and Moron (1992). We focused attention on the 

 four morphometries used by Sanzo (1912) to distinguish 

 between white and shortfin mako sharks: snout shape; eye 

 shape (EYL/EYH); ratio of mouth width to length (MOW/ 

 MOL); distance between the origins of the second dorsal 

 and anal fins (PAI^PD2)). Our preliminary analysis in- 

 dicated that eye size (EYL) and the distance between the 

 origin of the first dorsal fin and the pectoral fin free rear 

 tip (PDl-PRT) might be more suitable for identification 

 and they were also included. We tested these variables 

 graphically for their ability to distinguish between the 

 two species (Mollet and Cailliet, 1996). The statistical pro- 

 gram SYSTAT-SYGRAPH (Wilkinson, 1986) was used for 

 analysis and graph production. 



For specimens in which the relative positions of dorsal 

 and anal fin origins were not measured directly, we calcu- 

 lated them from the difference between snout to anal fin 

 and snout to second dorsal fin measurements (DAO=PAL- 

 PD2). For the evaluation of the relative positions of the 

 first dorsal and pectoral fins, we calculated the distance 



^ Vanni S. '2000. Personal commun. Sezione di Zoologia "La 

 Specola," Museo di Storia Naturale deU'Universit, Via Romana, 

 17-50125 Firenze, Italy. 



Moron, J. 1994. Personal commun. Departamento doe Biologi'a 

 Animal I, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Madrid E- 

 28040, Spain. 



