SHARKS. 
1167 
Genus ACANTHORHINUS. 
Teeth of the upper jaw conical , carinated on the anterior surface, and set in several simultaneously functioned 
transverse rows. Teeth of the lower jaw obliquely shaped incisors, set in severed transverse rows, of which the 
foremost two or three are simultaneously erect and set 
the eyes as from the mouth. Length of the caudal fin 
Of this genus two species have been described, one 
of which, however, Acanthorliinus rostratus, from the 
Mediterranean and the Atlantic outside, is extremely 
little known, and has been founded on characters that 
seem rather uncertain. The name of the genus was 
coined by Blainville, who in 1816 conferred it upon 
all the Sharks without anal fin with especial reference, 
it is true, to the Picked Dog-fish, but also enumerating 
among the species our Greenland Shark. Subsequently 
the genus has received several names, which must be 
rejected, however, for different reasons. In 1817 Cuvier 
included the Greerdand Shark in the subgenus Scymnus 
close together. Length of the snout about the same from 
at the upper edge less than t / 5 of the length of the body. 
( les Lwiches ), from which it was afterwards removed 
on account of the dentition. Lesueur (1818) gave the 
genus the name of Somniosus, a translation of the 
Sleeper, as the Greenland Shark is called by American 
fishermen. In 1841 Muller and Henle bestowed 
upon it the name of Lcemargus , which Ivroyer had 
conferred shortly before (1837) on a genus of crus- 
taceans. The oldest available name is Blainville’s, 
and as it cannot be applied to either of the two pre- 
ceding genera, both of which have earlier names, its 
employment here is fully justifiable. 
THE GREENLAND SHARK (sw. hakaringen or haskardingen). 
ACANTHORHINUS CA RCHARIAS. 
Plate LII, fig. 3. 
Skin rather sparsely shagreened with thorn-like ( conical ) spines, in an unworn state pointed , with grooved base and 
arcuately recurved tip. Length of the snout about 4 / 5 of the postorbital length of the head or more. Greatest 
depth of the body about 15 — 17 %, its least depth ( just in front of the caudal fin) about 3 V 2 — 4 %, of its length. 
Coloration brown or black, shading on the sides into violet; iris blue, pupil green. 
Fig. 342. Upper ( a ) and lower (b) jaw-teeth of a Greenland Shark (Acanthorliinus carcharias ) 3'/ 2 In - long, nat. size; c, d, and e, three 
dermal spines (scales) of different form from the same individual as a and b, magnified. 
Syn. Hay, Egede, Gronl. Perlustr., p. 49. Cards marinus , Cam's § 14. Haae-Kierring, StrOm, Sondm. Beskriv., p. 284. 
Carcharias, Crantz, Gronl. Hist. (ed. suec.), lib. II, cap. 2, Haakall, Olafs., Reis. Isl., pp. 359, 597, 839. 
a Rafinesqoe had indeed collected all these Sharks into one genus ( Dalatias ) previously (Car. Ale. N. Gen., Spec., p. 10); but he 
characterized them by the absence of spiracles, and besides he was not acquainted with any species of the present genus. 
Scandinavian Fishes. 
147 
