THE NATURAL HISTORY OF THE FRILLED SHARK 

 CHLAMTDOSELACHUS AHGUITiEUS 



By Eugene W. Gudger 



Bibliographer and Associate in Ichthyology 

 American Museum of Natural History 



AND Bertram G. Smith 

 Professor of Anatomy 

 New York University 



INTRODUCTION 



Considering the primitive position of Chlamydoselachus among vertebrates and the 

 widespread interest aroused by the first published description, it is surprising that no 

 comprehensive account of the natural history of this shark has been published in all the 

 years since Samuel Garman (1884.1 and 1885.2) first figured and described it. 



Because the fish has been rarely taken outside of Japanese waters, and then only 

 in scattered localities, there have been few opportunities other than in Japan for any study 

 of its natural history. Unfortunately no Japanese ichthyologist has yet undertaken this 

 task. Had Dr. Bashford Dean lived, he would presumably have prefaced his contribution 

 to the embryology of Chlamydoselachus with such an introduction, using mainly the data 

 obtained at first hand during his sojourns in Japan in 1900-1901 and again in 1905 — data 

 recorded only sparingly in his notebooks but held doubtless in his capacious memory. 

 The writing of such a natural history would have been a task for which he was peculiarly 

 fitted because of his wide experience as collector and student of primitive fishes. But 

 unfortunately the only article Doctor Dean found time to publish on Chlamydoselachus 

 was the abstract of a preliminary report (1903) read before the American Society of 

 Zoologists. As it is, the known facts about Chlamydoselachus are widely scattered 

 through the Hterature from 1881 to 1931. 



Preliminary to our study of the external development of this fish, based on Doctor 

 Dean's drawings, we have thought it well to bring together in orderly form this widely 

 scattered knowledge of Chlamydoselachus as a background and foundation for our pro- 

 jected work. We have tried from our studies of the literature to synthesi2;e the natural 

 history of Chlaynydoselachus — the fish and its life in nature. As the reader will see, the 

 data have been continually checked against Doctor Dean's notes and against all of our 

 available material. This material consists of three adults and six large embryos in the 

 collections of the American Museum, and in addition a finely preserved adult head, kindly 

 loaned by Prof. J. H. McGregor, from the zoological cabinet of Columbia University. 

 All these specimens were brought by Doctor Dean from Japan or sent from Misaki to him. 

 These specimens have been of the greatest service to us, for while we have checked each 

 published description and statement against every other one, in every possible case the 

 fishes themselves have been the ultimate source of our information. 



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