248 Bashford Dean Memorial Volume 



DISCOVERY OF CHLAMTDOSELACHUS ATiGUlKEUS 



It has long been erroneously held that the late Samuel Carman was the first scientific 

 man to see and describe (1884.1) the "Japanese frilled shark." However, in going 

 through the literature, we have found that L. Doderlein brought to Europe a large collec- 

 tion of Japanese fishes secured in the years 1879 to 1881. These were described by Stein- 

 dachner and Doderlein,' but they nowhere mention a fish that can be identified with 

 Chlamydoselachus. In the "Einleitung," Doderlein says the most important part of his 

 collection was deposited "in der K. K. zoologischen Hofmuseums [Wien]." 



At the end of the "Einleitung" there is a widely set-off paragraph signed by Stein- 

 dachner, in which he says that he took over Ddderlein's collection and the editorship of 

 his manuscript. But there is still no trace of Chlaynydoselachus. However, Rose (1895), 

 in the introduction to his paper on the development of the teeth of Chlamydoselachus, 

 says that Doderlein gave him (Rose) an embryo, which was taken from the body (Leibe) 

 of one of two specimens obtained by Doderlein from Tokyo Bay in 1881. Rose says: 



Late in the year 1882, Doderlein described the two adult animals and entrusted the hand- 

 written description to Hofrath Steindachner in Vienna, who was to look after its publication 

 and who received along with many other rare fishes the two specimens of Chlamydoselachus 

 from Professor Doderlein. Doderlein's description has not been published and since then 

 (18821 nothing has been heard of the two Chlamydoselachus in Vienna. 



From the above it is clear that the credit for the discovery of this fish belongs to 

 Doderlein. He, and even more Steindachner, must have known that it was a great 

 ichthyological rarity. Why one, or both, did not publish this description at once is an 

 unsolved mystery. Our first thought was that the specimens might have been destroyed 

 or lost, but we find that CoUett (1897-1, P- 9), who has listed all the specimens of Chlamy- 

 doselachus in European museums, records these first of all as "Mus. Vienna, 2 specimens, 

 Tokio, 1881." Collett does not say that this information came from Vienna (he states his 

 authority for counts in other museums), and since he quotes Rose, it may be that he got 

 the data from him. That these specimens are still in the Naturhistorisches Museum at 

 Vienna, we are informed in a recent letter from Dr. Victor Pietschmann. 



Since Doderlein's description was never published, the credit for first naming 

 Chlamydoselachus and publishing a description of it must go to the late Samuel Carman, 

 curator of fishes in the Museum of Comparative Zoology of Harvard College, who, in two 

 articles published in 1884, first made this rare and extraordinary fish known to the scien- 

 tific world. These descriptions were based on an adult female specimen, 1511 mm. (59.5 

 in.) long, "purchased by the Museum of Comparative Zoology from Professor H. A. 

 Ward, who gives Japan as the locaUty." Carman published a figure of this strange fish, 

 and, since this is the earliest known, it is reproduced herein as our Text-figure 1. As will 

 be seen later, the tail of this fish is defective. 



'Steindachner, Franz, und Doderlein, Ludwig. Beitrage sur Kenntniss der Fische Japans (I). Den/^schn/ten K. A){ademie Wusen 

 schaften Wien, 1883, vol. 47, (Einleitung, pp. 211-217). 



