Pastinachus, Ruppell in Ruppell, 1828

Haque, Alifa Bintha, White, William T., Cavanagh, Rachel D., Biswas, Aparna Riti & Hossain, Nazia, 2021, New records of elasmobranchs in the Bay of Bengal, Bangladesh: further taxonomic research is essential, Zootaxa 5027 (2), pp. 211-230 : 219

Genus Pastinachus

The current study confirmed two Pastinachus ater ( Figure 7 ) specimens in Bangladesh and 18 specimens of Pastinachus solocirostris ( Figure 8 ). It is assumed that, P. ater has been previously reported from Bangladesh as P. sephen ( Roy et al. 2015) , though a recent taxonomic study found that P. sephen is only found in the Western Indian Ocean (Red Sea to Pakistan) ( Last & Manjaji-Matsumoto 2010). However, four specimens were morphologically very close to P. sephen and referred to as P. cf. sephen ( Figure 9 ) needing further taxonomic work. We also recorded two specimens of a third species of Pastinachus , which are morphologically consistent with P. gracilicaudus . Further taxonomic examination is required, however, as differences were found between the NADH2 sequences of the Bangladesh as compared to Borneo specimens. This species is tentatively referred to as Pastinachus cf. gracilicaudus ( Figure 10 ).

Figures

FIGURE 7. Dorsal image of Pastinachus cf. ater from Cox’s Bazar (Male, DW= 33.02 cm).

FIGURE 8. Dorsal image of Pastinachus solocirostris caught from southcentral Bangladesh (Male, DW= 71.12 cm).

FIGURE 9. Dorsal image of Pastinachus cf. sephen (Female juvenile. DW= 20.32cm).

FIGURE 10. Dorsal image of Pastinachus cf. gracilicaudus caught from southcentral Bangladesh (Pregnant female, DW= 83.82 cm).