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Memoir Sears Foundation for Marine Research 



Carcharias taurus Rafinesque, 1810 



Sand Shark, Sand Tiger 



Figures 13, 14 



Study Material. Five Massachusetts specimens, male and female, 943 to 1,081 mm. 

 long (Harv. Mus. Comp. Zool.) 5 jaws of a large specimen from New Jersey, and also of a 

 female, 2,800 mm., from Engiewood, Florida} also many medium-sized specimens, fresh 

 caught at Woods Hole, Massachusetts. 



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Figure 13. Carcharias taurus, young male, loio mm. long, from Cape Cod, Massachusetts (Harv. Mus. 

 Comp. Zool., No. 351). A Anterior part of head of same from below. B Dermal denticles, general view, about 

 25 x; lateral and apical views, about 50 x. C Upper and lower teeth of larger specimen from New Jersey 

 (Harv. Mus. Comp. Zool., No. 351), about I x. 



Distinctive Characters. The five gill openings in front of the pectorals, the second 

 dorsal about as large as the first, the position of the first dorsal entirely in front jf the 

 pelvics, the entire separation of the nostril from the mouth, and the highly characteristic 

 teeth (Fig. 13 C) are diagnostic among sharks of our province. 



denticles on one or on both sides in others and denticles on both sides in the two larg-e specimens that we have exam- 

 ined. Neither do the supposed differences in the relative position of the rear end of the base of the first dorsal 

 fin, or ifl the origin of the pelvics, invoked by earlier authors as a specific character, prove any more significant, 

 for these vary considerably among American specimens (see p. 101). 



