The Sphyrnidae are denizens of nearly all tropical and subtropical seas. Sphyrna (Zygaena) tudes occurs in the Mediterranean, and S. zygaena is a very rare visitant to the British coasts. A specimen over 13 feet in length was captured at Ilfracombe in 1865, and other examples have been taken off Banffshire, at Newlyn in Cornwall, at Yarmouth, and in Carmarthen Bay.[[533]] The shape of the head differs in different species, and in young forms the peculiarities of the adult are less marked. In the Bonnet Shark (S. tiburo) (Fig. 256, A), the head is crescentic or kidney-shaped, with prominent postero-lateral angles, and between this type of head and the more pronounced "hammer" of S. zygaena (Fig. 256, B) an almost perfect gradation is supplied by other species. The Hammer-heads are voracious Sharks, usually living in deep water, and they may grow to a length of 15 feet. As many as thirty-seven embryos have been taken from the oviducts of a female nearly 11 feet in length.[[534]]
Fig. 256.—Ventral view of the head and trunk (A) of a young Bonnet Shark (Sphyrna tiburo), and (B) of a young male Hammer-head (S. zygaena). c, Clasper; cl, cloacal aperture; e, eye; n, nostril; n′, nasal groove.
Teeth assigned with more or less probability to Sphyrna are found in the Miocene of Europe and North America.
Fam. 10. Lamnidae (Porbeagle Sharks).—Large, stout-bodied Sharks with two dorsal fins, the first just behind the pectoral fins, the second, which is small, opposite the small anal fin; both without spines. Tail with a prominent lateral keel on each side. Nictitating membranes absent. Spiracles minute or wanting. Branchial clefts very wide. No oro-nasal grooves. Vertebrae asterospondylic. When fully developed the teeth are solid.
In the genus Lamna, which includes the Porbeagle Sharks, the teeth are large, each consisting of a long narrow central cusp, usually with smaller cusps at the base. The common Porbeagle (L. cornubica), a fierce pelagic Shark, which may reach a length of 10 feet, frequents the North Atlantic and the North Pacific (Fig. 257). It has often been captured off the coasts of Great Britain and Ireland in Mackerel or Salmon nets, or by lines laid for food Fishes. An allied genus, Isurus, is represented by species on the Atlantic coast of North America, in the Mediterranean and the neighbouring parts of the Atlantic, and also in Asiatic seas. Carcharodon rondeletii[[535]] is a pelagic Shark with large, triangular, finely-serrated teeth, without basal cusps, and is found in all tropical and subtropical seas from the Mediterranean to Australia and New Zealand. It is one of the largest and most formidable of Sharks, and it is said to grow to a length of 40 feet. Nothing is known of its breeding habits. Odontaspis, which has minute pore-like spiracles, but no lateral caudal keels, is a Shark of moderate size, chiefly inhabiting the Atlantic, but found also in the Mediterranean and the Southern Pacific. Its teeth are long and awl-like, with small basal cusps.
Fig. 257.—The Common Porbeagle (Lamna cornubica). (From Parker and Haswell, after Bashford Dean.)
The Thresher or Fox Shark (Alopecias vulpes) is remarkable for the extraordinary length of the upper lobe of the caudal fin, which is as long as the rest of the body (Fig. 258). Its teeth are of moderate size, triangular in shape, and without serrations. The "Thresher" has a wide distribution, being abundant in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, besides being the commonest of the larger Sharks frequenting the British coasts. It grows to a length of 15 feet, of which the tail forms at least one-half. Quite inoffensive to man, the Thresher feeds on the shoals of smaller Teleosts, such as Pilchards, Herrings, and Sprats. When feeding it swims in gradually diminishing circles round the shoal, splashing the water with its long tail, and keeping its victims so crowded together that they become an easy prey. A remarkable Lamnoid Shark (Mitsukurina owstoni),[[536]] which has the snout produced into a "long, flat, flexible, leaf-like blade," somewhat resembling that of Polyodon, but narrower and more pointed, and has protractile jaws and large spiracles, is found in deep water near Yokohama, and may prove to be generically identical with the Cretaceous Shark Scapanorhynchus.[[537]]
