Note on a Specimen of Echinorhinus spinosus

Extract

A specimen of this somewhat uncommon shark was recently brought to the Laboratory by some fishermen. The following notes on it may be of interest. The fish was taken with a long line baited with mackerel, for conger. It was captured forty miles south of the Mewstone, at a depth of about forty-five fathoms. The specimen was a female, and measured 6 feet 6 inches from the end of the snout to the tip of the tail. The following are the principal other measurements: snout to anterior edge of first dorsal fin, 46 inches; snout to anterior edge of pectoral, 20 inches; the interval between the anterior edge of the pectoral, and the pelvic fin was 26 inches. The first dorsal, which was small, was thus situated immediately above the pelvic. The second dorsal, which was smaller than the first, was situated as nearly as possible midway between the first dorsal and the commencement of the caudal fin. The measurements so far tally with Day's description of the species.

Attention may, however, be drawn to the measurements which follow in connection with the following statement in Day: “Ventral (fin) … commences mid-way between the front gill opening and the end of the caudal fin in elongated forms: or anterior end of the snout and middle of the caudal fin, as observed in the Plymouth and Aberdeen stouter specimens.” (Day's British Fishes, vol. ii. p. 323.)

In my specimen the distance from the front gill opening to the anterior edge of the ventral was 30 inches: thence to the end of the caudal was 33 inches.