Abstract
IN 1874 Prof. Pavesi, of Payia, described in the Annali del Museo Civico of Genoa a shark which had been captured at Lerici, in the Gulf of Spezzia, in 1871. It belonged to the genus Selache, but, from a peculiarity in the conformation of the rostrum, Pavesi considered it to be a distinct species from the great basking shark, Selache maxima, and named it Selache rostrata. The specific difference of this specimen has, however, been called in question by Canestrini, Steenstrup, and other ichthyologists, who were inclined to regard it as a monstrous form of the Selache maxima. In June, 1877, a male shark, also belonging to the genus Selache, was caught in the harbour of Vado, near Savona, andj being examined by Prof. Pavesi, forms the subject of this second communication to the Annali del Museo Civico, vol. xii. Its length was between ten and eleven feet. It had been eviscerated before coming into his possession, so that the memoir does not give an account of the abdominal viscera, but the external characters, the skeleton, the pectinated appendages, the brain and cranial nerves, and the vascular system, are described. The shark from Vado is almost identical, says the author, with that previously caught at Lerici. He then carefully reconsiders the systematic position of these specimens. He is strongly of opinion that the view that the specimen originally described was a monstrous form of Selache maxima is quite untenable. But his examination of this second specimen has convinced him that these sharks can no longer be regarded as a distinct species, and that they are young examples of the great basking shark, Selache maxima. The memoir is illustrated by a lithographic plate and by twenty-seven woodcuts.
Seconda Contribuzione morfologia e sistematica dei Selachi.
Del Prof. Pietro Pavesi. (Genoa, 1878.)
Article PDF
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Seconda Contribuzione morfologia e sistematica dei Selachi . Nature 19, 384 (1879). https://doi.org/10.1038/019384a0
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/019384a0