Shark and Cojjipany 



Bramble shark { Echinorhinus brucus). 



From the author's collection 



Actually, its prickly hide is covered with unusual denticles, each of 

 which is topped with one or two small spines. 



Its known appearances in American waters are extremely rare. A 

 62-inch, 100-pound shark, believed to be a Bramble shark, was caught 

 off Santa Barbara, California, in 1939, and a 6-foot, 5-inch Bramble was 

 caught in a gill-net off Los Angeles County in 1944. Two more were 

 taken off San Diego in 1947. Only two western Atlantic records of it 

 exist: in December, 1878, a 7-footer was washed ashore at Provincetown, 

 Massachusetts, and in 1898, a Bramble shark nearly 10 feet long was 

 caught near Buenos Aires. 



The Bramble shark is far more common in the eastern Atlantic, from 

 tropical West Africa to Ireland and the North Sea, and in the Medi- 

 terranean. It has also been reported off South Africa, around the Ha- 

 waiian Islands, Japan, Australia, and New Zealand, and in Arabian waters. 



• Family Heterodontidae— Horn Sharks 



A Horn shark ( Heterodontus japonicus ) . 



Courtesy, American Museum of Natural History 



