EVIDENCE OF PRIMITIVE CHARACTERS. 5 



maintains that the paired fins of Chimaera are ancestral to those of sharks and 

 dipnoans. Rabl (1901) also refers, but in a different aspect, to the primitive nature 

 of the fins of Chimaera. By several writers the unpaired fins are regarded as 

 primitive. The fin spine, as Reis (1896) maintains, shows the granular calcification 

 of the mesozoic Ischyodus. The mixipterygia are "of less compound construc- 

 tion" (Jungersen, 1898) than those of sharks. 



Brain, nerves, and sense organs have received considerable attention. Valentin 

 (1842) states that in its brain Chimaera is intermediate between cyclostomes and 

 plagiostomes, and his view is shared, more or less distinctly, by Johannes Muller, 

 Mikloucho-Macleay, Gegenbaur, Wilder, and M. Fiirbringer. To Burckhardt (i 893) 

 the Chimaeroid brain suggests characters allied on the one hand to the primitive 

 sharks, on the other to the lower ganoids, and according to Studnicka (1895) the 

 forebrain is nearer the primitive form of the selachian brain than even that of 

 Notidanid. Jaekel (1902) holds also that in Chimaera, alone among fishes, there 

 appears an epiphyseal opening in the cranial roof. In the matter of cranial nerves 

 Cole (1896) states that " Chimaera is unrivalled among vertebrates, first, for the ease 

 with which its nerves may be dissected and, second, for the almost ideal results 

 that may be attained, " as well as for the peculiarity of independent nerve roots, 

 "archaic and perhaps primitive in type." Similarly, Fiirbringer (1897) comments 

 upon the peculiar conditions of the nerves of the occiput. Collinge (1896) notes 

 also the simplicity of the mucous-canal system, which, he believes, separates widely 

 Chimaeroids and sharks. From the standpoint of the auditory organ Retzius (1884) 

 places Chimaeroids in the ancestral line of the modern elasmobranchs. Gegenbaur 

 (1901), finally, notes that the flattened cord is primitive, like that of cyclostomes. 



Visceral peculiarities have also been given considerable notice. Thus Huxley 

 (1872) refers to the "almost undeveloped gastric division of the alimentary canal, 

 [and] the relatively small and simple heart." Gegenbaur (1901) is inclined to regard 

 the few turns of the spiral intestinal valve as the ancestral condition of the gut of 

 Lepidosteus and Ceratodus. Leydig(i85i), followed by Mazza and Perugia (1894), 

 suggests that the many small brown glands of the rectum represent the ancestral 

 condition of the digitiform appendix of sharks. Redeke (1899) maintains that in the 

 structure of the kidney Chimaeroids are primitive, since, among other features, they 

 retain a remarkable metamerism and have not the modified Geschlechtsniere of sharks. 



The foregoing are the principal lines of argument in favor of the primitive 

 position of Chimaeroids. Whether they can be maintained in the light of additional 

 evidence, notably on the side of embryology, is a question which will be discussed 

 in the present memoir. 



To summarize the problem : Are the Chimaeroid fishes the least modified 

 descendants of the primitive gnathostome? Or are they, on the contrary, degen- 

 erate, specialized, or widely modified? Are they, in other words, close to ancestral 

 forms which gave rise to sharks, with which they are obviously associated or are 

 they but modifications of the shark-like form? In spite of the formidable list 



