[SCIENTIFIC RESULTS OF THE PHILIPPINE CRUISE OF THE FISHERIES STEAMER 

 "ALBATROSS," 1907-10.— No. 14.] 



DESCRIPTION OF A NEW NOTIDANOID SHARK FROM 

 THE PHILIPPINE ISLANDS REPRESENTING A NEW 

 FAMILY. 



By Hugh M. Smith/ 



United States Deputy Commissioner of Fisheries 

 and Director of the Albatross Philippine Expedition. 



Among the sharks collected in the Philippme Archipelago by the 

 Albatross expedition is a remarkable deep-water form from the 

 Mindanao Sea which has not hitherto been met with and becomes the 

 type of a new family of Notidani or Diplospondyli. 



PENTANCHID^, new family (Notidani). 



Notidanoid sharks characterized by five branchial apertures, the 

 last three of which are above the base of the pectoral fin; elongate 

 body, nearly straight tail; long, flat snout; inferior mouth; pluri- 

 serial, pluricuspid, erect teeth, similar in both jaws; minute spiracles; 

 imbricate denticles; a single small dorsal fin without spine; long 

 caudal fin, with large lower lobe; long anal fui; ventral fins inserted 

 in advance of the center of the body; and large, broad, pectoral fins. 



This family is intermediate between the other two known families 

 composing the Notidani — the Hexancliidse, with moderately elongate 

 body, upbent tail, short dorsal and anal fins, inferior mouth, dissimilar 

 teeth in the two jaws, and gill openings of normal shape; and the 

 Chlamydoselachidse, with greatly elongate body, straight tail, long 

 dorsal and anal fins, terminal mouth, similar teeth in the two jaws, 

 and frilled gill openings.. 



The presence of only five bra,nchial openings, while not surprising 

 in such an archaic type of shark as the one under consideration, is 

 nevertheless not found in any other known shark referable to this 

 order. 



1 In the study of this shark the writer has been associated with Mr. Lewis Radclifle, who assumes 

 joint authority foi the new genus and species described. 



Proceedings U. S. National Museum, Vol. 41— No. 1872. 



489 



