. Fishes. Fishes. The True Sharks 211 of the head and at the base of the pectoral fin, and are capable of benumbing an enemy by means of a severe electric shock. The exercise of this power soon exhausts the animal, and a certain amount of rest is essential to recovery. The torpedoes, also known as crampfishes or numbfishes, are peculiarly soft to the touch and rather limp, the substance consisting largely of watery or fatty tissues. They are found in all warm seas. They are not often abundant, and as food they have not much value. Perhaps the largest species is Tetronarce occidentalis, the cra
. Fishes. Fishes. The True Sharks 211 of the head and at the base of the pectoral fin, and are capable of benumbing an enemy by means of a severe electric shock. The exercise of this power soon exhausts the animal, and a certain amount of rest is essential to recovery. The torpedoes, also known as crampfishes or numbfishes, are peculiarly soft to the touch and rather limp, the substance consisting largely of watery or fatty tissues. They are found in all warm seas. They are not often abundant, and as food they have not much value. Perhaps the largest species is Tetronarce occidentalis, the crampfish of our Atlantic coast, black in color, and said some- times to weigh 200 pounds. In California Tetronarce cali- jornica reaches a length of three feet and is very rarely taken, in warm sandy bays. Tetronarce nohiliana in Europe is much like these two American species. In the European species, Narcobatns torpedo, the spiracles are fringed and the animal is of smaller size. To Narcine belong the smaller numbfish, or "entemedor," of tropical America. These have the spiracles close behind the eyes, not at a distance as in Narcobatns and Tetronarce. Narcine brasiliensis is found throughout the West Indies, and Narcine entemedor in the Gulf of California. Astrape, a genus with but one dorsal fin, is common in southern Japan. Fossil Narcobatns and Astrape occur in the Eocene, one speci- men of the former nearly five feet long. Vertebrae of Astrape occur in Prussia in the amber-beds. Petalodontidse. — Near the Squatinidaz, between the sharks and the rays. Woodward places the large extinct family of Petalodontidcc, with coarsely paved teeth each of which is elongate with a central ridge and one or more strong roots at base. The best-known genera are Janassa and Petalodus, widely distributed in Carboniferous time. Janassa is a broad fiat shark, or, perhaps. Fig. 152.—Teeth of Janassa tin- ct-a+p pnvprprl with ^mnnth guwformis Atthy. Carboniferous. ^ Skate, COVereO Wl
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