2 2 Memoir Sears Foundation for Marine Research 



which he based the species shows none."" But its saw is credited in the original account 

 with having only 16—20 teeth. 



An adequate description of P. pristis is much to be desired, because this is the 

 species, as type of the genus, with which all other members of Prhtis must be com- 

 pared eventually. To date the only definite locality records of specimens positively 

 referable to it are for Senegal, «! the Mediterranean (where it appears to have been con- 

 fused with other Sawfishes), and perhaps Portugal. But watch should be kept for it 

 in the American side of the tropical Atlantic. Two other members of the group without 

 lower caudal lobe are known from the western Pacific-Indian Ocean area, P. zijsron 

 Bleeker i 85 1 and P. clavata Garman 1 9 1 3 ; both of them are separable from P.pectinatus, 

 from P. pristis, and from each other, by the characters listed in the accompanying Key. 



Key to Species 



I a. Caudal fin with a definite lower lobe. 



2 a. Origin of first dorsal posterior to origin of pelvics; subcaudal lobe prominent. 



cuspidatus Latham 1794. 



Southeastern Asia, East Indies, 



Ceylon, and India to Red Sea. 



2b. Origin of first dorsal considerably anterior to origin of pelvics; subcaudal 



lobe small (Fig. 5). 



3 a. Rear tip of second dorsal separated from origin of caudal by an inter- 

 space about half as long as base of second dorsal. 



perotteti Miiller and Henle 1841, 



P-34- 



Also zephyreus Jordan and Starks 1895, 

 from the Pacific Coast of Central America, 

 and microdon Latham 1 794, from the West 

 Pacific-Indian Ocean. *^ 



3 b. Rear tip of second dorsal reaching to origin of caudal. 



lekhhardti Whitley 1945. 

 Queensland, Australia (in rivers). 

 I b. Caudal fin without definite lower lobe. 



4 a. Origin of first dorsal over origin of pelvics, or anterior to latter. 

 5a. 25-32 pairs of rostral teeth, pectinatus Latham 1794, p. 23. 

 5b. 16-20 pairs of rostral teeth. pristis Linnaeus 1758. 



Eastern tropical Atlantic, ac- 

 cidental in Mediterranean 

 and perhaps to Portugal. 



4 b. Origin of first dorsal clearly posterior to origin of pelvics. 



6a. 25-32 pairs of rostral teeth; outer corners of pectorals 



60. LeCluse (Exoticorum libri decern . . . Animal. Plant . . . Petri Belloni, obs , 1605: 136); locality "in Oceano 



Occiduo." 



61. Rochebrune, Act. Soc. linn. Bordeaux, (2) 6, 1882: 49, as P. antiquorum Latham 1794. 



62. See discussion, p. 21. 



