532 Memoir Sears Foundation for Marine Research 



(dcscr., meas., good ill., Aust.) ; Lucas, Proc. roy. Soc. Vict., N. S. 2, 1890: 44 (Aust.) ; Jordan, Tanaka 



and Snyder, J. Coll. Sci. Tokyo, jj, 1913: 23 (Japan). 

 Echinorhinus brucus Waite, Rec. Canterbury [N. Z.] Mus., 2 (l), 1913: 17 (size, weight, N. Zealand); 



Phillipps, N. Z. J. Sci. Tech., 10, 1928: 221 (N. Zealand); Fowler, Proc. Pan-Pacif. sci. Congr., (4) 



5, 1930: 497; Bull. U.S. nat. Mus., 100 (r^), 1941: 277 (Pacif. refs.) ; Hubbs and Clark, Calif. Fish 



Game, 57 (2), 1945: 64, fig. 16, 17 (descr., photos, California). 

 Echmorhinus cookei Pietschmann, Anz. .Akad. Wiss. Wien, 27, 1928: 297 (descr., Hawaiian Is.) ; Bull. Bishop 



Mus., 7j, 1930: 3 (descr., Hawaiian Is.). 

 Echmorhinus (Rubusqualus) mccoyi Whitley, Aust. Zool., 6, 1 931: 311 (descr., Victoria); Mem. Qd. Mns., 



10 (4), 1934: 200; Fish. Aust., i, 1940: I 5 I (descr., ill., Aust.). 



Suborder PRISTIOPHOROIDEA 



Characters. No anal fin; 2 dorsal fins without spines; either 5 or 6 gill openings, all 

 of them anterior to origin of pectoral; snout greatly elongate, blade- or beak-like; each 

 edge of snout and of head, anterior to mouth, armed with a row of sharp transverse, tooth- 

 like structures and with a long fleshy barbel; oral teeth small, numerous, with i cusp, simi- 

 lar in front and sides of mouth, with several rows functional; trunk subcylindrlcal, except 

 that head and snout are flattened dorso-ventrally ; anterior margins of pectorals not ex- 

 panded forward past ist gill opening; nostrils entirely separate from mouth; eye without 

 nictitating fold or membrane; spiracles present; inner margins of pelvics entirely separate 

 posterior to cloaca ; vertebral column completely segmented, with well developed centra, 

 the notochord segmentally constricted correspondingly; skull with a separate antorbital 

 bar of spongy cartilage extending rearward from nasal capsule, past orbit, as far as corner 

 of mouth ;^ upper jaw (palatoquadrate cartilage) attached to hyomandibular, and also 

 firmly articulated by a short, narrow transverse process to lower side of cranium in post- 

 orbital region and by a ligament to the antorbital bar;" rostral cartilages united as a single 

 elongate, blade-like bar, occupying the entire breadth of the snout to its tip; propterygial 

 cartilage of pectoral bears i radial element only; pelvic transverse; heart valves in 3 rows. 

 Development ovoviviparous. 



Remarks. The sharks of this group have usually been placed among the Squaloidea, 

 with which they agree in lacking an anal fin. But we believe they should rank as a distinct 

 suborder (see p. 77), for they differ not only as regards their beak-like snout with its lateral 

 teeth, in which they are unique among modern sharks, but in the presence of a separate 

 antorbital bar, from which the upper jaw is suspended by a broad ligament in addition to 

 the articulation to the cranium. 



The saw-like beak makes them resemble superficially the sawfishes (Pristidae) 

 among the Batoidei. But they are true sharks because of their free upper eyelids, their 

 pectorals not united with the sides of the head, and their lateral, not ventral, gill openings. 



Range. Indo-Pacific; South Africa; Tasmania; Australia; Philippines; Korea; 

 Japan. Fossil pristiophorids are known from the Cretaceous, Miocene, and Tertiary. 



Families. One family only, Pristiophoridae, with characters of the suborder. 



I. This bar, like the rostrum proper, is armed with lateral teeth. 2. Description based on original dissection. 



