CHIMERAS 



307 



United States. It was frequently taken in the dredge hauls 

 made by the steamship Albatross, the majority of the speci- 

 mens being under 2 feet in length. 



Like all the members of this Order — the total number of 

 which is very small — this species resembles a big-eyed shark 

 with a cutlass-fish tail. 



SPOTTED CHIMERA. 



The head is blunt and very thick, and from it the body 

 gradually tapers down to the whip-like tail. The skin is 

 smooth, and the paired fins are shark-like. 



The front dorsal fin is provided with anterior spine-folds, 

 like a fan, and may be depressed into a sheath in the body wall. 



The sense organs are similar to those of sharks, and the 

 visceral parts also are shark-like. The skeleton is cartilag- 

 inous, and the vertebral axis is notochordal. Of the embry- 

 ology and life history of the Chimeras generally, practically 

 nothing is known. 



