DESCRIPTION OF A SPECIES OF FISH (MIT- 



SUKURINA OWSTONI) FROM JAPAN, 



THE TYPE OF A DISTINCT FAMILY 



OF LAMNOID SHARKS. 



BY DAVID STARR JORDAN. 



Plates XI and XII. 



Some time since, Mr. Allen Owston, a resident of Yo- 

 kohama, Japan, secured from a fisherman a specimen of a 

 very remarkable shark, obtained in deep water near Yoko- 

 hama. Mr. Owston, through Professor Kakichi Mitsukuri, 

 presented this specimen to the University of Tokio. 



In coming to the United States as a delegate to the Inter- 

 national Fur Seal Conference of 1897, Professor Mitsukuri 

 brought this specimen with him, and he has placed it in my 

 hands to be identified, figured, and described. 



It proves to be not only a remarkably distinct new genus 

 of lamnoid affinities, but also the type of a distinct family. 



The accompanying figures have been drawn by Mrs. 

 Chloe Leslie Starks, under the direction of Dr. Theodore 

 Gill, at Washington. The dissections necessary to show 

 the singular characters were suggested by Dr. Gill, to whom 

 the writer would express his especial obligations. 



The type specimen has been returned to the Museum of 

 the University of Tokio. 



Mitsitkurina, gen. nov. 



Skeleton flexible; snout produced in a flat, flexible blade; spiracles large; 

 teeth acicular, only the lateral ones with small basal cusps; last gill-opening 

 above base of pectorals; fins all low, the ventral with very long base; the 

 claspers very small; lower lobe of caudal long; no pit at root of caudal; 

 first dorsal well advanced; second shorter and higher than anal. 



[199] January 15, 1898. 



