Annotated checklist of the living sharks, batoids and chimaeras (Chondrichthyes) of the world, with a focus on biogeographical diversity

Abstract

An annotated checklist of the chondrichthyan fishes (sharks, batoids and chimaeras) of the world is presented. As of 7 November 2015, the number of species totals 1188, comprising 16 orders, 61 families and 199 genera. The checklist includes nine orders, 34 families, 105 genera and 509 species of sharks; six orders, 24 families, 88 genera and 630 species of batoids (skates and rays); one order, three families, six genera and 49 species of holocephalans (chimaeras). The most speciose shark orders are the Carcharhiniformes with 284 species, followed by the Squaliformes with 119. The most species-rich batoid orders are the Rajiformes with 285 species and the Myliobatiformes with 210. This checklist represents the first global checklist of chondrichthyans to include information on maximum size, geographic and depth distributions, as well as comments on taxonomically problematic species and recent and regularly overlooked synonymizations. Furthermore, a detailed analysis of the biogeographical diversity of the species across 10 major areas of occurrence is given, including updated figures for previously published hotspots of chondrichthyan biodiversity, providing the detailed numbers of chondrichthyan species per major area, and revealing centres of distribution for several taxa.

World in Motion: Perception and Discrimination of Movement in Juvenile Grey Bamboo Sharks (Chiloscyllium griseum)

“…In this setting, movements were possibly not distinct enough to be perceived and discriminated appropriately, despite high visual acuity regarding stationary objects (Fuss et al, 2014b, c, Fuss & Schluessel, in press;Schluessel, Beil, Weber, & Bleckmann, 2014;Schluessel & Duengen, 2015). Bamboo sharks naturally live in visually well-structured environments such as coral reefs (Riede, 2004;Weigmann, 2016). Thus, bamboo sharks probably rarely experience "pure" or "isolated" motion without some kind of reference structure or system (as displayed in Experiment 1, Experiment 2B, T6 and Experiment 3, T7, T11, T17) resulting in a visual system that may be better adapted to detect relative movements of organisms (e.g., prey, predators or conspecifics) against a fixed background.…”

First substantiated record of Raja asterias Delaroche, 1809 (Elasmobranchii: Rajiformes: Rajidae) in the Gulf of Cádiz, North-eastern Atlantic

“…The absence of a substantiated record confirming the presence of R. asterias with morphological and/or molecular evidences has probably prevented that those records were taken into account in recent works dealing with the geographical distribution of this species (Ebert and Stehmann 2013, Serena et al 2015, Weigmann 2016. Hence, in this work we used morphological characteristics and molecular techniques to report the presence of R. asterias from the Gulf of Cádiz, Northeastern Atlantic.…”

“…It is a benthic species that predominantly lives in the continental shelf, from very shallow waters near the shore down to 200 m depth (Serena 2005), although it has been reported from 343 m depth in the Ionian Sea (Mytilineou et al 2005). The maximum size of the species is 94 cm total length, although the majority of specimens have a total length of 76 cm or less (Weigmann 2016). The Mediterranean starry ray is present in the whole Mediterranean, it less commonly occurs in the eastern part, and is absent in the Black Sea (Serena 2005), but in general, it shows a decline in terms of abundance (Abella and Serena 2005, Coll et al 2013, Navarro et al 2013).…”

“…Although the species appears in several works in the Atlantic (Coelho et al 2005, Serghini et al 2008, Tai et al 2010), these works have not been taken into account in a recent assessment of the species (Serena et al 2015), an elasmobranch catalogue that includes the Gulf of Cádiz (Ebert and Stehmann 2013), and a recent annotated global checklist of chondrichthyans (Weigmann 2016). The absence of a substantiated record of the species in the Atlantic and also the reported easiness of confusion of R. asterias with R. brachyura (see Serena et al 2015), may be the reasons for which the mentioned works from the Atlantic have not been taken into account.…”

“…The extended distribution of R. asterias to the adjacent areas of the Atlantic had already been suggested before by Stehmann and Bürkel (1984), who reported its possible distribution in southern Portugal although considered it as questionable, and by Fischer et al (1987). More recently, the species has not been included in the FAO species catalogue of sharks, batoids and chimaeras of the North Atlantic, which includes the Gulf of Cádiz (Ebert and Stehmann 2013), and was reported as endemic to the Mediterranean Sea in an annotated global checklist of chondrichthyans (Weigmann 2016).…”