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New sighting of the endangered species blackchin guitarfish, Rhinobatos cemiculus, in the South Aegean Sea Halit Filiz 1, Gökçen Bilge 1, Daniela Giannetto 2 and Sercan Yapıcı 1* Abstract Background: A new record of the endangered species blackchin guitarfish, Rhinobatos cemiculus (925 mm TL) is here reported from South Aegean Sea. On 11 January 2015, a single specimen was collected by longline off from the Kuşadası Bay, Turkey. This new finding confirms the presence of the species along the Anatolian coasts of Aegean Sea and shows that the species is occuring in the South Aegean Sea. Results: Rhinobatos cemiculus belonging to family Rhinobatidae was identified and its distribution was compared for the Aegean and Mediterranean Sea based on literature. The main identification and some measurements of morphometric characteristics were given. Conclusions: In terms of distribution of fish taxa, Aegean coasts of Turkey has the highest diversity with 449 species, which of 64 species belong to Elasmobranchii. This report aims to close information gaps in distribution endangered cartilaginous fish throughout the Turkish Aegean coasts. Keywords: Aegean Sea, Anatolian coast, Endangered species, Blackchin guitarfish Background The family Rhinobatidae consists of 52 species worldwide, two of which have been found to occur in the Mediterranean (Rhinobatos cemiculus Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire 1817 and Rhinobatos rhinobatos (Linnaeus 1758)). Rhinobatos cemiculus is widely distributed eastern Atlantic from Portugal to Angola (McEachran and Capapé, 1984), mostly on sandy and muddy bottoms to maximum depth of 100 m (Capapé and Zaouali, 1994). It is a prevalent Guitarfish in the Central Mediterranean Sea (i.e. Gulf of Gabés) (Echwikhi et al. 2013) and North eastern Atlantic (e.g. Senegalese coast) (Seck et al. 2004). In the Mediterranean, it has been reported from France (Capapé et al. 2006) Italy (Tortonese, 1956), Morocco (Lloris and Rucabado, 1998), Tunisia (Mejri et al. 2004; Echwikhi et al. 2013), Turkey (Iskenderun Bay: Başusta ... |