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First Record of the Rare Eel Bathymyrus simus Smith 1965 (Anguilliformes: Congridae) from the Indian Ocean with a Taxonomic Description

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Abstract

Bathymyrus simus, B. smithi and B. echinorhynchus are the three species recognised worldwide under the genus Bathymyrus. Of these, B. smithi and B. echinorhynchus have been reported in the Indian Ocean. Two specimens of Bathymyrus simus were collected from the Bay of Bengal, one from the by-catch of trawler at Nagapattinam fishing harbour, Tamil Nadu and another from the by-catch of trawler at Digha, West Bengal. The morphometric and meristic characters of the specimens were compared with the previous records of the Bathymyrus genus. It was reported that, the presence of dental rostral expansion has been attributed as a sexual dimorphic character in males; however the present female specimens with dental rostral expansion clearly indicates that it is not a sexual dimorphic character, but a species specific character. We report the presence of B. simus in the Indian Ocean, extending its known geographic range from the Western Pacific to the Indian Ocean.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank Director, ICAR-NBFGR for providing the financial support. We thank Dr. A Murugan, Associate Professor and Head, Department of Value Added Aquaculture, Vivekananda College, Kanyakumari, for the help rendered during specimen collection. We would also like to acknowledge Dr. C. S Purushothaman, former Principal Scientist and HOD, Aquatic Environmental Management, CIFE, Mumbai, for his technical inputs during the preparation of the manuscript. We also thank Shri Syam Krishnan M.U for helping in photography. The authors also thank the anonymous reviewers for the critical comments and improvement of the manuscript.

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  1. National Bureau of Fish Genetic Resources (ICAR), Lucknow, UP, 226 002, India

    T. K. Teena Jayakumar, T. T. Ajith Kumar & Kuldeep K. Lal

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  1. T. K. Teena Jayakumar
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  2. T. T. Ajith Kumar
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Correspondence to Kuldeep K. Lal.

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Jayakumar, T.K.T., Kumar, T.T.A. & Lal, K.K. First Record of the Rare Eel Bathymyrus simus Smith 1965 (Anguilliformes: Congridae) from the Indian Ocean with a Taxonomic Description. Thalassas 36, 177–184 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s41208-019-00182-y

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