We studied the age and growth of four sympatric stingrays: reticulate whipray, Himanutra uarnak (n=19); blue mask, Neotrygon kuhlii (n=34); cowtail, Pastinachus atrus (n=32) and blue-spotted fantail, Taeniura lymma (n=40) rays at Ningaloo Reef, a fringing coral reef on the north-western coast of western Australia. Age estimates derived from band counts within sectioned vertebrae ranged between ...

The Neogene of Kutch, India is well known for its rich marine and terrestrial vertebrate assemblages. However, the data piscean fauna from middle Miocene very scarce. We report here additional chondrichthyan osteichthyan remains deposit Chhasra Formation, Palasava site, Gujarat, India. elasmobranchs include Carcharhinus Blainville, 1816 (C. brevipinna (Müller & Henle, 1839), C. falciformis ...

The monotypic Indo-Pacific genus Parastromateus Bleeker, 1864 is morphologically peculiar among carangid fishes in its overall body form and has been difficult to place phylogenetically. This has been partly the result of a lack of detailed morphological data for this and other carangid fishes. Here, we describe and analyze the osteology of Parastromateus niger (Bloch, 1795), review its taxonom...

A taxonomic review of the scorpaenid genus Pteroidichthys Bleeker, 1856 resulted in recognizing four valid species, including two new species; P. acutus n. sp., P. amboinensis Bleeker 1856, P. caussei n. sp., and P. noronhai (Fowler 1938). The genus Pteropelor Fowler, 1938 is regarded as a junior synonym of Pteroidichthys. Rhinopias godfreyi Whitley 1954, previously treated as a valid species, ...

Elucidating the phylogenetic relationships of the current but problematic Dasyatidae (Order Myliobatiformes) was the first priority of the current study. Here, we studied three molecular gene markers of 43 species (COI gene), 33 species (ND2 gene) and 34 species (RAG1 gene) of stingrays to draft out the phylogenetic tree of the order. Nine character states were identified and used to confirm th...

Fish venoms are often poorly studied, in part due to the difficulty in obtaining, extracting, and storing them. In this study, we characterize the cardiovascular and neurotoxic effects of the venoms from the following six species of fish: the cartilaginous stingrays Neotrygon kuhlii and Himantura toshi, and the bony fish Platycephalus fucus, Girella tricuspidata, Mugil cephalus, and Dentex tumi...

Throughout the larval development of a highly euryhaline crab, Neohelice (= Chasmagnathus) granulata, we studied effects of reduced salinities (15 and 25‰ vs. seawater control at 32‰) on larval dry mass (W ) and biochemical composition (total lipid and protein). In the early zoeal stages (I, II), reduced salinity caused delayed moulting, while W and biochemical composition at ecdysis remained u...

The feeding habits and trophic level of Himantura gerrardi were studied according to sex and size classes utilizing 80 individuals obtained using bottom trawl between May and December 2014 from Oman Sea. Collected specimens were divided in three size classes (small 58 cm) based on disk width (DW). Preys were identified in seven main zoological categories, where crustacean and polychaetes were t...

Mixed-species grouping is a widespread phenomenon found in arachnids, fish, birds and mammals (Morse 1977; Hodge & Uetz 1992; Bshary & Noë 1997; Herzing & Johnson 1997). Three main reasons have been postulated as to why such heterospecific groups are formed: (1) to improve foraging efficiency, (2) to reduce predation and (3) by chance encounters (Waser 1984; Sakai & Kohda 1995; Noë & Bshary 199...