Taxonomic assessment of sharks, rays and guitarfishes (Chondrichthyes: Elasmobranchii) from south-eastern Arabia, using the NADH dehydrogenase subunit 2 (NADH 2) gene
Henderson, Aaron C.
Reeve, Alan J.
Jabado, Rima W.
Naylor, Gavin J. P.
Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society
2016
2015-10-05
176
2
399
442
D2V
1158979
(EAGLE RAYS)
[308,634,1505,1526]
Elasmobranchii
Myliobatidae
Animalia
Myliobatiformes
31
430
Chordata
family
Two species of Aetomylaeuswere also included in the analysis, namely A. nichofiiand A. milvus, and they exhibited a between-group mean distance of 18.43 ± 1.33%. Naylor et al. (2012)noted a division within their A. nichofiispecimens, with specimens from the Persian Gulf and Australiaclustering beside the bulk of their specimens, which came from Borneo. The clusters were therefore designated A. nichofii(Borneo), A. cf. nichofii1 (Persian Gulf) and A. cf. 1, Acroteriobatus salalah; 2, Acroteriobatussp.; 3, Glaucostegus halavi; 4, Rhinobatossp.(cluster A); 5, Rhinobatossp.(cluster B); 6, Rhinobatos punctifer. Table 4.Between-group mean p-distances (%) for rhinobatid taxa from south-eastern Arabia (below the diagonal) with their standard error values (%) (above the diagonal) 1 2 3 4 5 6 1 1.02 1.35 0.96 1.03 1.13 2 9.89 1.46 1.04 1.06 1.09 3 18.91 20.55 1.34 1.38 1.43 4 9.94 10.49 18.59 0.42 1.06 5 9.94 10.94 19.09 2.12 1.08 6 11.89 11.99 21.50 11.39 11.53 this contained A. salalahand the other undescribed species, which was designated Acroteriobatussp.( Fig. 8). These congeners also exhibit a high between-group mean distance. The final rhinobatid species was Glaucostegus halavi. None of these species was reported by Naylor et al. (2012); however, when viewed alongside closely related taxa all the clusters remained distinct ( Fig. 9). Figure 8. Rhinobatossp.(top) is morphologically and genetically distinct from Rhinobatos punctifer(middle). The bottom image shows Acroteriobatussp. nichofii2 ( Australia). All the current specimens clustered with A. cf. nichofii1. The current A. milvusspecimens clustered with two Persian Gulf specimens reported by Naylor et al. (2012).