REVISION OF CARCHARHINID SHARK GENERA — SPRINGER 573 



Scoliodon Miiller and Henle 



Scoliodon Miiller and Henle, 1837, Sitzb. Akad. Wiss. Berlin, p. 114 (name only). 

 Scoliodon Miiller and Henle, 1837, Arch. Naturg., vol. 3, no. 1, p. 397 (name and 



diagnosis). 

 Scoliodon Miiller and Henle, 1838, L'Institut, vol. 6, no. 244, p. 64 (name and 



diagnosis) . 

 Scoliodon Miiller and Henle, 1838, Mag. Nat. Hist., new. ser., vol. 2, p. 35 (name 



and diagnosis). 

 Scoliodon Miiller and Henle, 1841, Systematische Beschreibung der Plagiostomen, 



2nd page 27 (a subgenus with three included species; type species Carcharias 



(Scoliodon) laticaudus Miiller and Henle, by subsequent designation, Gill, 



1862, Ann. New York Lye, vol. 8, p. 401). 

 Physodon Valenciennes in Miiller and Henle, 1841, Systematische Beschreibung 



der Plagiostomen, p. 30 (a subgenus; type species Carcharias (Physodon) 



mulleri Valenciennes by monotypy). 



In several copies of Miiller and Henle (1841), except that in the 

 British Museum, seen by me, there are two pages numbered 27 and 

 two numbered 28. The first page 27 lists Scoliodon as a new genus and 

 the description terminates and is complete at the bottom of the first 

 page 28. The second page 27 lists Scoliodon as a subgenus and the 

 description continues from page 28 to page 29. Obviously, the first 

 pair of pages were not meant to be included and their elimination from 

 the text causes no discontinuity. This is not so with the second pair. 

 For nomenclatural purposes I disregard the first pages 27 and 28. 



Bigelow and Schroeder (1948, p. 292) included in their synonymy 

 of Scoliodon (which embodies all three genera treated in my study) 

 the genus Cynocephalus (not Cynocephalus Gill, 1862) which they 

 attributed to Bleeker (1879). They designated Carcharias (Scoliodon) 

 macrorhynchus Bleeker (1852, but 1858 in their work) as type species. 

 However, Bleeker (1878) first used the name Cynocephalus for a group 

 of shark species that did not include C. (S.) macrorhynchus; therefore, 

 Bigelow and Schroeder were in error in dating the genus from 1879 and 

 C. (S.) macrorhynchus could not be designated as type species for the 

 genus. 



Cynocephalus was first used validly in 1768 for a genus of mammals; 

 Bleeker's usage of the name was apparently an extrapolation from 

 Gill (1862), who gave a key to shark genera and designated Squalus 

 glaucus Linnaeus as type species of Cynocephalus, listing no other species. 

 For these reasons, I do not believe Bleeker was creating a genus, and 

 future workers should refrain from selecting a type from Bleeker 

 and erecting an additional junior homonym. 



Diagnosis. — Small sharks (largest specimen seen 581 mm. t.l.) 

 distinct from all other Carcharhinidae in having the tip of the posterior 

 margin of the first dorsal fin extending posteriorly beyond the level of 



