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SynopsisOf a total of 377 Pristis perotteti tagged in the Lake Nicaragua-Rio San Juan System, 214 (56.8% were recovered. Eighty were recovered at the original tagging site; four m'oved downstream the full length of the river; and 127 tagged at the source of the river were recovered in all parts of the lake. Only one was recovered in a different river system, 58 km down the coast from the main mouth of the Rio San Juan.A life span of 30 years is suggested, with rapid growth (3040 cm per year) in the first three years, slowing to about 4 or 5 cm per year in the later years of life. Maximum sizes collected were 384 cm for males, 429 cm for females, smaller than maximum lengths reported elsewhere.The lake sawfish are not physically landlocked, but individuals rem,sin in fresh water for very long periods; parturition takes place in fresh water; all sizes are found in the lake; and it appears that this stock finds all of its ecological needs met in the lake. Individuals may spend all of their lives in fresh water, although, as a species, P. perotteti has not completely abandoned the sea, since some are known to occur in salt water. The Lake Nicaragua-Rio San Juan sawfish are a discrete stock, with only limited gene flow with neighboring stocks.P. perotteti is farther along in its adaptation to fresh water, in being able both to osmoregulate and reproduce there, than other known euryhaline elasmobranchs, except for the African stingray, Dasyatis garouaensis, of the Niger-Benue System, and the completely adapted South American freshwater rays (family Potamotrygonidae).

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SynopsisObservations of reproductive features and body measurements were made on wild-caught, freshwater stingrays, Potamotrygon circularis and P. motoro, from the Amazon drainage of western Brazil and southern Colombia. Further observations were made in Detroit's Belle Isle Aquarium on a captive pair of P. motoro and their descendants, which constitute the first known captive breeding colony of potamotrygonids. The gross structure and function of female and male reproductive systems are described. There is no obvious difference between those of the two species. They are aplacentally viviparous, the young being nourished in advanced stages by uterine milk secreted by trophonemata. Size at onset and completion of sexual maturation, breeding season and behavior, gestation period, litter size and sex ratios are discussed. Up to 21 proportional measurements were made on several fetal and postnatal stages of both species. Several proportional changes occur in very early fetal life, but most body proportions undergo only minor changes from advanced fetal through adult stages. A growth curve is proposed for P. motoro based on observations of the captive colony.

All previously reported species of Chondrichthyes, from both marine and fresh water, have contained urea at concentrations ranging from about 300 to 1300 milligrams of urea nitrogen per 100 milliliters of fluid. Body fluids from two species of Potamotrygon, permanent residents of the Amazon basin, contained only 2 to 3 milligrams of urea nitrogen per 100 milliliters. Although they have abandoned the retention of urea exhibited by other chondrichthyans, the extent to which they have lost the mechanisms of retaining and tolerating urea in a hypertonic medium has not been determined.

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