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Morphological aspects of the digestive system in freshwater stingray (Potamotrygon amandae—Loboda and Carvalho, 2013): myliobatiformes; potamotrygoninae

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Abstract

Detailed morphological descriptions supported by macroscopic, microscopic and ultrastructural analyses of the complete digestive system of the Potamotrygon amandae from the Brazilian Amazon basin were used in this study. For this purpose, six healthy adult specimens were dissected and had samples from all segments of the digestive system fixed and processed according to protocol for light and scanning electron microscopy. According to our data, in comparison with other studies in different species of oceanic and freshwater rays, it was possible to observe several morphological similarities in cell and tissue arrangement, in addition to the similarity of shape and topographic position of the organs. Thus, it was possible to conclude that the morphological and cytoarchitectural similarity is phylogenetically maintained according to a succession of functionally successful processes in the evolutionary history of the taxon. Furthermore, the minor morphological variations observed in Potamotrygon amandae may be related to habitat and diet specificity.

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Data availability

The data that support the findings of this study are available on request from the corresponding author. The data are not publicly available due to ethical restrictions.

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Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to Prof. Dr. Marcelo Rodrigues de Carvalho for the scientific support.

Author information

Author notes

  1. Luciano de Morais-Pinto and Rose Eli Grassi Rici contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Programa de Pós Graduação em Anatomia dos Animais Domésticos e Silvestres, Faculdade de Medicina Veterinária e Zootecnia, Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil

    Júlia Bastos de Aquino, Luana Felix de Melo, Luciano de Morais-Pinto & Rose Eli Grassi Rici

  2. Departamento de Produção e Saúde Animal, Faculdade de Medicina Veterinária de Araçatuba, Universidade Estadual Paulista Júlio de Mesquita Filho, Araçatuba, São Paulo, Brazil

    Rosângela Felipe Rodrigues, Luciano de Morais-Pinto & Rose Eli Grassi Rici

  3. Faculdade de Engenharia de Ilha Solteira, Universidade Estadual Paulista Júlio de Mesquita Filho, Ilha Solteira, São Paulo, Brazil

    Alan Peres Ferraz de Melo, Luciano de Morais-Pinto & Rose Eli Grassi Rici

  4. Laboratório de Design Anatômico/LabDA, Departamento de Morfologia, Universidade Federal de Santa Maria, Prédio 19, Sala 3154, Cidade Universitária—Av. Roraima, 1000, CEP-97.105-970, Camobi, Santa Maria, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil

    Luciano de Morais-Pinto & Rose Eli Grassi Rici

  5. Programa de Pós Graduação em Interações Estruturais e Funcionais em Reabilitação, Universidade de Marília (UNIMAR), Marília, São Paulo, Brazil

    Rose Eli Grassi Rici

Authors
  1. Júlia Bastos de Aquino
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Contributions

Conceptualization: REGR; LM-P. Project administration: REGR; JBA. Data curation: REGR; JBA. Investigation: JBA; LFM. Formal analysis: RFR; APFM. Methodology: RFR; APFM. Supervision: REGR, LM-P. Writing–original draft: LM-P, REGR. Writing—review and editing: LM-P, REGR.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Luciano de Morais-Pinto.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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The authors declare that there are no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship and/or publication of this article. The authors declare no competing interests.

Ethical approval

This study was approved by the honorable Committee on Ethics and Use of Experimental Animals of the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine and Animal Science of the University of São Paulo (CEUA-2605250320).

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de Aquino, J.B., de Melo, L.F., Rodrigues, R.F. et al. Morphological aspects of the digestive system in freshwater stingray (Potamotrygon amandae—Loboda and Carvalho, 2013): myliobatiformes; potamotrygoninae. Zoomorphology 142, 181–191 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00435-023-00592-w

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