Fishes of the Western North Atlantic 527 



or in groups and varying greatly in size ; a dermal ridge above and one below the lateral 

 line, posterior to gill openings; caudal without precaudal pits; spiracles minute; a labial 

 furrow on each jaw and voluminous pit at each corner of mouth; origin of ist dorsal over 

 bases of pelvics, and far behind midlength of trunk; caudal without subterminal notch, its 

 lower anterior corner not expanded as a definite lobe; gill openings much larger than is 

 usual in the suborder. 



Range. Eastern Atlantic, from Ireland to tropical South Africa, including the Medi- 

 terranean; Argentina; California; Japan; Hawaiian Islands; New Zealand; Australia 

 and Tasmania; Arabia; accidental in western North Atlantic. 



Fossil. Miocene, North America; Pliocene, Europe. 



Species. The South African representatives of the genus, as well as the Australian- 

 New Zealand and Hawaiian representatives, have all been given separate names as sup- 

 posedly distinct from E. brucus of the North Atlantic. By common consent, however, the 

 first of them {E. obesus Smith, 1 849) has been relegated to the synonymy of brucus. Simi- 

 larly, it has been held recently^ that the Hawaiian cookei Pietschmann, 1928, is merely a 

 variant of brucus. A Californian specimen, recently taken, proved to be a typical brucus ^"^ 

 and it is at least questionable whether the features that are believed by its author to dis- 

 tinguish the Australian-New Zealand mccoyi Whitley, 193 1, from E. brucus, represent 

 anything more than individual variations.' Final conclusions must await critical compari- 

 son of adequate series of specimens, however. References for the several geographic re- 

 gions are therefore segregated in the accompanying synonymy (p. 530). 



Echinorhinus brucus (Bonnaterre), 1788 

 Spiny Shark 



Figure 102 



Study Material. None. 



Distinctive Characters. The following combination makes this Shark easily recog- 

 nizable among local Squaloidea, should one be taken in the western side of the North 

 Atlantic: dorsal fins without spines, teeth with several cusps in each jaw but so oblique 

 as to form a nearly continuous cutting edge, very large gill openings and peculiar, shield- 

 like dermal denticles. 



Description.* Trunk subcylindrical, moderately stout. Lateral line lying in a well 

 marked furrow, rearward from opposite 5th gill opening, flanked above and below by a 

 pair of thin, palisade-like dermal ridges, sparsely fringed with small fleshy papillae. Der- 

 mal denticles in the form of flat shields, varying greatly in diameter, each with a more or 

 less strongly developed conical, sharp-pointed spine in the center, sometimes 2 spines, from 

 which numerous furrows radiate outward to the margin so that the latter is more or less 



2. Fowler, Bull. U.S. nat. Mus., loo (/j), 1941: 278; Hubbs and Clark, Calif. Fish Game, j/, 1945 : 65. 

 2a. Hubbs and Clark, Calif. Fish Game, J 7, 1945: 65. 3. Whitley, Aust. Zool., fi, 1931 : 31 1. 



4. Based on published accounts and illustrations. 



