284 BULLETIN 10 0, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



teeth compressed, pointed, unequal ; nostrils at last seventh in preoral 

 length, internarial 9I/2 ; preoral length slightly over 1^4 in head ; 

 interorbital low. Gill openings subequal, last 2 closer, before pec- 

 toral. Spiracle close behind eye, less than half of eye. 



Scales small, pointed, with median keel and sometimes with pair 

 of lateral keels, close-set on lower parts of body and front fin edges, 

 terminal parts naked. 



First dorsal origin behind pectoral base but before hind inner pec- 

 toral angle, fin length 2% in head ; second dorsal begins orbital length 

 behind ventral base, fin length 3 in head; caudal 4 in rest of body; 

 pectoral 2% in head, width 1% its length; ventral length 4% in head. 



Uniform grayish. Pupil emerald green. Length, to 810 mm. 

 (Regan; Barnard.) 



South Africa. The two original specimens 750 mm. Type in the 

 British Museum. 



Family SQUATINIDAE 



Body greatly depressed, broadened. Head depressed, profile 

 rounded as seen from above. Snout obtuse, wide. Eyes small, well 

 separated. Mouth anterior. Teeth with broad backward extended 

 base anteriorly, with acute rather narrow somewhat compressed cusp 

 with sharp ridge each side, continued to edge of base and with ex- 

 tension downward below cone in front and another backward behind ; 

 usually no median tooth on symphysis; about 20 rows of jaw teeth 

 with 3 or 4 series functional. Nostrils on front snout edge, with 

 skinny flaps. Gill openings lateral, wide, partly inferior and partly 

 hidden by pectoral base. Spiracles wide. Scales of young with 

 broad base, somewhat stellate with slender hooked cusp, conic in 

 terminal portion and ridged with 4 keels on more basal section. 

 Body smoother below. Dorsals 2, small, subequal, on tail, supra- 

 caudal and subcaudal moderate. Caudal small. Pectoral free from 

 head, expanded forward and backward. 



Small sharks of warm or tropical seas, of interest as intermediate 

 between sharks and rays, though more like the latter in habit. Vivip- 

 arous, about 20 young produced at one time. Perfected fossils known 

 from the Cretaceous and Tertiary. 



Genus SQUATINA Dumeiil 



Squatina DuMfiErc, Zool. Analytique, p. 102, 1806. (Type, Squatina angelus 



Tynva^rW^Squalus squatina Linnaeus, virtually tautotypic. ) — Valmont, Diet. 



Hist. Nat., No. 1, p. 273, 1768 ; No. 11, p. 46, 1769 ; No. 12, p. 593, IV, 1769 



(nonbinomial ; inadmissible). 

 Rhina Schaeffer, Epistola studii ichth., p. 20, 1760. (Type, Squalus squatina 



Linnaeus.) — (Klein) Walbaum, Artedi Pise, vol. 3, p. 580, 1792, (Type, 



Squalus squatina Linnaeus, monotypic, inadmissible.) 



