PRISTIDAE

Pristis Linck, 1790, old sawfish records in the Mediterranean (Algeria, France, Spain, Italy, Israel) are to be considered doubtful (Stehmann & Bürkel, 1984; Tortonese, 1985, 1987; Serena, 2005). Nevertheless, Psomadakis et al. (2009b) found an old museum specimen (without catalogue number) as well as handwritten archive data in the Zoological Museum of Naples (Italy), supporting the record of a sawfish in the Mediterranean given by Costa (1837), but were unable to ascertain specific identity of this specimen due to the confusion regarding the identity, number and nomenclature of pristid species.