ECHINORHINIDAE (PRICKLY SHARKS)

Henderson, Aaron C., Reeve, Alan J., Jabado, Rima W. & Naylor, Gavin J. P., 2016, Taxonomic assessment of sharks, rays and guitarfishes (Chondrichthyes: Elasmobranchii) from south-eastern Arabia, using the NADH dehydrogenase subunit 2 (NADH 2) gene, Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 176 (2), pp. 399-442 : 428

ECHINORHINIDAE (PRICKLY SHARKS)

Five specimens initially identified as Echinorhinus brucus formed a single cluster ( Fig. 2 ). When com- pared with Echinorhinus brucus and Echinorhinus cookei specimens (the only recognized species in this family) reported by Naylor et al. (2012), the five Oman specimens formed a separate cluster ( Fig. 6 ). Given their distinct separation, genetic distances were calculated between the Oman specimens and the Echinorhinus spp. reported by Naylor et al. (2012). The mean distance between the current specimens and E. brucus was 5.04 ± 0.70% while it was 5.23 ± 0.76% between the current specimens and E. cookei . By comparison, the mean distance between E. brucus and E. cookei was 6.07 ± 0.81%. Consequently, the Oman specimens have been labelled Echinorhinus sp.

Figures

Figure 2. Neighbour-joining tree for an 829-bp fragment of the NADH2 gene from 1487 elasmobranch specimens from south-eastern Arabia. Values in parentheses indicate sample size (n) and within-group mean genetic distance (D). Bootstrap values are based on 1000 replications and only values ≥ 95% are shown.

Figure 6. Neighbour-joining tree for an 829-bp fragment of the NADH2 gene for Echinorhinus sp. from the present study together with Echinorhinus brucus and Echinorhinus cookei (Naylor et al., 2012). Bootstrap values are based on 1000 replications and only values ≥ 95% are shown.