Fishes . Fig. —Carcharodon tnegalodon Charlesworth. (After Zittel.) Miocene. Faniilv Lamnidce weight. It is a dull and sluggish animal of the northern seas,almost as inert as a sawlog, often floating slowly southward inpairs in the spring and caught occasionally by whalers for itsliver. When caught, its huge flabby head spreads out wide onthe ground, its weight in connection with the great size of themouth-cavity rendering it shapeless. Although so clumsyand without spirit, it is said that a blow with its tail will crush The True Sharks 197 an ordinary whaleboat. The basking shark is know
Fishes . Fig. —Carcharodon tnegalodon Charlesworth. (After Zittel.) Miocene. Faniilv Lamnidce weight. It is a dull and sluggish animal of the northern seas,almost as inert as a sawlog, often floating slowly southward inpairs in the spring and caught occasionally by whalers for itsliver. When caught, its huge flabby head spreads out wide onthe ground, its weight in connection with the great size of themouth-cavity rendering it shapeless. Although so clumsyand without spirit, it is said that a blow with its tail will crush The True Sharks 197 an ordinary whaleboat. The basking shark is known on allnorthern coasts, but has most frequently been taken in theNorth Sea, and about Monterey Bay in California. From thislocality specimens have been sent to the chief museums ofEurope. In its external characters the basking shark has muchin common with the man-eater. Its body is, however, rela-. FiG. 139—Basking Shark, Cetorhimis maximua (Gunner). France. tively clumsy forward; its fins are lower, and its gill-openingsare much broader, almost meeting under the throat. Thegreat difference lies in the teeth, which in Cetorhinus are verysmall and weak, about 200 in each row. The basking shark,also called elephant-shark and bone-shark, does not pursue itsprey, but feeds on small creatures to be taken without teeth of Cctoriiinits have been found from the Creta-ceous, as also fossil gill-rakers, structures which in this sharkare so long as to suggest whalebone. Family Rhineodontidae. — The whale-sharks, RhincodontidcB,are likewise sluggish monsters with feeble teeth and keeled,tails. From Cciorhinns they differ mainly in having the lastgill-opening above the pectorals. There is probably but onespecies, Rhineodon typicus, of the tropical Pacific, straying north-ward to Florida, Lower California, and Japan. The Carcharioid Sharks, or Requins.— The largest family
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