Records of morphological abnormalities in the Brazilian electric ray Narcine brasiliensis (Olfers, 1831) (Chondrichthyes
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Records of morphological abnormalities in the Brazilian electric ray Narcine brasiliensis (Olfers, 1831) (Chondrichthyes: Narcinidae) in the southwestern Atlantic Fernanda Andreoli Rolim 1,2
& Matheus Marcos Rotundo
3
& Gustavo Cardoso Stabile
3
& Teodoro Vaske-Júnior
2
Received: 29 August 2019 / Revised: 28 February 2020 / Accepted: 15 April 2020 # Senckenberg Gesellschaft für Naturforschung 2020
Abstract This study provides the first record of external morphological deformities in Chondrichthyes of the family Narcinidae. We report here abnormalities in two individuals of Narcine brasiliensis (Olfers, 1831), in which one of them had its pectoral fins not fused with the head and the other presented anophthalmia, with the left eye absent. Possible causes, including the high concentration of pollutants in the region, are briefly discussed. Keywords Embryonic development . Torpediniformes . Anophthalmia . Fins not adherent
Introduction Several morphological abnormalities have been recorded in fish, which can be related to deformations on the external and internal anatomy (e.g., hermaphroditism, skeletal deformities), as well as in color patterns (e.g. albinism) (Dawson 1964; Ribeiro-Prado et al. 2008). Concerning elasmobranchs (sharks and rays), studies have reported external morphological deformities such as pectoral fins not fused with the head, absence of gill slits, bicephaly, incomplete fins, anophthalmia, absence of a clasper, cyclopic individuals, and presence of defective vertebral column (RibeiroPrado et al. 2008; El Kamel-Moutalibi et al. 2011; Guida et al. 2014; Santos and Gadig 2014; Carmo and Fávaro 2015; Torres-Huerta et al. 2015).
Communicated by R. Thiel * Fernanda Andreoli Rolim [email protected] 1
Institute of Biosciences, São Paulo State University, UNESP, Rio Claro, SP, Brazil
2
Institute of Biosciences, Coastal Campus, São Paulo State University, UNESP, São Vicente, São Paulo, Brazil
3
Zoological Collection of University of Santa Cecília, UNISANTA, Santos, São Paulo, Brazil
More specifically within the family Narcinidae (numbfishes), leucistic individuals of the species Narcine entemedor were reported (Sandoval-Castillo et al. 2006) and hermaphroditism was found in N. timlei (Nair and Soundararajan 1973); however, no external morphological malformations are known to date. This family comprises five genera (Narcine, Benthobatis, Discopyge, Diplobatis, and Narcinops) and about thirty species (Last et al. 2016). These rays are distributed worldwide from temperate to tropical waters and inshore to offshore in deep waters (Last et al. 2016). In southeastern Brazil, the only representatives are Benthobatis kreftii, Discopyge tschudi and Narcine brasiliensis (Olfers 1831) (Last et al. 2016). Narcine brasiliensis is moderate in size (up to 470 mm total length) endemic coastal benthic batoids, occurring from southeastern Brazil to northern Argentina (Carvalho 1999). The species is commonly captured as bycatch of the trawler fleet in the region but is discarded ab
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