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RESEARCH ARTICLE
Contents Vol 30(4)

New record of the giant freshwater whipray from the Lesser Sunda region, Indonesia

Selvia Oktaviyani https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3375-8240 A and Fahmi https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3199-7467 A *
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations

A Research Center for Oceanography, National Research and Innovation Agency (BRIN), Jalan Pasir Putih 1, Ancol Timur, North Jakarta 14430, Indonesia.

* Correspondence to: fahmi@brin.go.id

Handling Editor: Alan Lymbery

Pacific Conservation Biology 30, PC23057 https://doi.org/10.1071/PC23057
Submitted: 14 December 2023  Accepted: 20 June 2024  Published: 9 July 2024

© 2024 The Author(s) (or their employer(s)). Published by CSIRO Publishing

Abstract

Context

The taxonomic nomenclature of species can change with the discovery of a distinct species. Such nomenclatural changes occurred for the giant freshwater whipray with the discovery of a similar species in the Indo-Australian region in 2008.

Aims

This paper reports a finding of the giant freshwater whipray in the Lesser Sunda region as the first confirmed record from the area.

Methods

The specimen was identified as the giant freshwater whipray based on its morphological features. Morphometric measurements were taken directly in the field and also based on the scale provided in the photographs.

Key results

The female specimen was recorded from the Alas Strait, West Nusa Tenggara Province, Indonesia on 20 July 2020. It was identified as Urogymnus cf. dalyensis due to its similar morphological characteristics with U. dalyensis from northern Australia but it had a shorter preoral snout and greater distance between the left and right fifth gill slits.

Conclusions

The occurrence of this species in the Lesser Sunda region may confuse U. dalyensis with the close relative from south-east Asia, U. polylepis.

Implications

This record may provide a link between the two species, either as a population structure of the same species or showing a clear separation between the two as distinct species.

Keywords: Alas Strait, Dasyatidae, Indo-Australia, Himantura chaophraya, taxonomy, Urogymnus dalyensis, Urogymnus polylepis, West Nusa Tenggara.

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