Proceedings of ^^^ 



the United States R^^l§ 

 National Museum ^^^0^ 



SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION • WASHINGTON, D.C. 



Volume 116 1964 Number 3496 



A SURVEY OF VERTEBRAL NUMBERS IN SHARKS > 



By Victor G. Springer and J. A. F. Garrick 



Introduction 



This paper broadly surveys vertebral numbers in sharks. The 

 study was prompted by our discovery that vertebral numbers are 

 important systematic characters in those carcharinid shark genera 

 that we have been investigating (Springer, 1964; Garrick, in ms). 

 We, therefore, have undertaken to determine if vertebral numbers 

 are of similar value in other genera, with the hope that some 

 contribution might be made to shark classification as a whole. 



Vertebral numbers have not been used previously as a systematic 

 character in sharte although they have received some attention in 

 rays (Ishiyama, 1958) and have been widely employed in teleosts 

 (e.g., BaUey and Gosline, 1955 ; Schmidt, 1917). The vertebral numbers 

 from sharlvs th&t have been recorded in the literature are given either 

 without comment or comparison or are employed as data for studies 

 in morphology or intraspecific variation (Punnett, 1904; Aasen, 1961). 



We present here vertebral data on 1524 specimens. We personally 

 made counts from 858 of these, mostly by X-ray methods. The 



• This study was conducted on funds administered by Dr. Leonard P. Schultz and provided by contracts 

 between the Office of Naval Research (NONR 1354(09)), the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC AT(30-1)- 

 2400), and the Smithsonian Institution. 



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