Pristiophoridae Bleeker, 1859

Ebert, David A., White, William T., Ho, Hsuan-Ching, Last, Peter R., Nakaya, Kazuhiro, Séret, Bernard, Straube, Nicolas, Naylor, Gavin J. P. & De Carvalho, Marcelo R., 2013, An annotated checklist of the chondrichthyans of Taiwan, Zootaxa 3752 (1), pp. 279-386 : 299

Family Pristiophoridae Bleeker, 1859

Sawsharks / Ễǿḛḕ

Genus Pristiophorus Müller & Henle, 1837

Sawsharks / Ễǿḛé

Pristiophorus Müller & Henle, 1837a (2): 116. Also Müller & Henle, 1837b, (3): 399; Müller & Henle, 1838a (2): 89 (" Pristis cirrhatus, Latham " designated as type species); Müller & Henle, 1838b (6): 65; Müller & Henle, 1839 (2): 97. Type species: Pristis cirratus Latham, 1794 , by monotypy.

Pristiophorus japonicus Günther, 1870

Japanese Sawshark / ƂÂỄǿḛ

Pristiophorus japonicus Günther, 1870: 433 . Syntypes (4): BMNH 1862.11.1.37 (1), Japan, BMNH 1953.8.10.6 (1 in poor condition), and BMNH uncat. (2 stuffed spec., not found) according to Eschmeyer (2013).

Local synonymy: Pristiophorus japonicus: Nakamura, 1936: 43 ; Chen, 1948: 93; Teng, 1962: 179; Chen, 1963: 102; Shen, 1984a: 67; Chen & Yu, 1986: 115; Shao et al., 2008: 237; Ebert & Wilms, 2013: this volume.

Taiwan voucher material: ASIZP 57267 (2 spec.), male 582 mm TL, female 356 mm TL, Dongsha Islands , Taiwan, 19°85'N, 114°03'E, 15 May 1993. TFRI uncat., 1030 mm TL (examined by DAE).

Remarks: First reported from Taiwanese waters by Nakamura (1936), and more recently by Shao et al. (2008), this species does not appear to be very common at fish markets around Taiwan, at least in recent years. Since P. japonicus appears to be a more temperate water, coastal species, its occurrence in Taiwan, the southern edge of its range, suggests that it may never have been a very abundant a species in these waters. One of us ( DAE) examined an unregistered 1030 mm TL specimen in the TFRI collection at Keelung in May 1988, this may have been the specimen referred to by Chen (1963: 102), but this could not be validated. Also, ASIZP 57267 was examined by DAE (November, 2012) and are referenced in Ebert & Wilms (2013, this volume).

Conservation status: Data Deficient.