Fishes of the Western North Atlantic 549 



rearward. Prepelvic tenacula blade-like, the cartilage mostly covered by thin skin with 

 leaf-like flaps along outer anterior margin and along outer posterior margin, the front 

 edge with a few (about 3—4) large hooks pointing toward base. Openings of prepelvic 

 pouches nearly transverse, or slightly oblique, with inner end anterior. 



Vertebral column with a great number of calcified rings surrounding notochord, 

 plainly visible when column is laid bare by dissection. Upper unpaired rostral cartilage 

 much longer and stouter than in other chimaeroids, directed upward at first, then bend- 

 ing forward abruptly to run out along upper margin of snout; flexible at point of 



Figure 122. Rhinochimaera pacifica, male, about 600 mm 

 long to upper origin of caudal fin, from Japan (Harv. 

 Mus. Comp. Zool., No. 13 14). Above, Portion of caudal 

 fin, about 0.55 X. Below, Upper edge of same, viewed 

 somewhat obliquely, to show marginal denticles, about 

 2.7 X. 



curvature as well as movable at articulation with cranium; lower paired rostral cartilages 

 much shorter, directed upward. Cranial orbits above brain case separated one from the 

 other by a membranous partition as in Chimaeridae.'^ Cerebral hemispheres of brain 

 well separated both from optic lobes and from olfactory bulbs.** 



Developmental Stages. The egg capsule has broad lateral flanges and many trans- 

 verse slit-like pores along either margin of the caudal extension of the embryo case on 

 the side opposite the opercular slit. 



Range and Depth. Rhinochimaerids have been recorded off Morocco and from 

 the Irish slope in the eastern side of the North Atlantic, from the continental slope 

 ofl:" northeastern North America between the offings of Virginia and Nova Scotia in 

 the west; from Walfish Bay, South Africa; from Japan; probably also from the Bay of 

 Bengal (p. 550, footnote loi). These localities are so widespread as to suggest that the 

 family is cosmopolitan in midlatitudes of both hemispheres at the proper depths. All 

 specimens for which the depth of capture was recorded have been taken between 375 

 (egg case) and 1,091 fathoms. 



Genera. The few known rhinochimaerids fall into two divisions: (A) with an 

 anal fin separate from caudal, and (B) without separate anal fin. The first of these cate- 



95. See Garman (Bull. Mus. comp. Zool. Harv., 41, 1904: pi. i, fig. 2) for illustrations of the skeleton. 



96. See Garman (Bull. Mus. comp. Zool. Harv., 41., 1904: pi. 4) for illustrations of the brain of Rhinochimaera. 



