Kaja's six-gill sawshark
| Kaja's six-gill sawshark | ||||||||||||
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| Pliotrema kajae | ||||||||||||
| Weigmann , Gon , Leeney & Temple , 2020 |
Kaja's six-gill saw shark ( Pliotrema kajae ) is a species of shark from the family of saw sharks (Pristiophoridae). It occurs on the coasts of Madagascar and over the Mascarene Plateau north of Mauritius .
features
Kaja's six-gill saw shark reaches a length of 143 cm. As with all six-gill saw sharks, the body is long, cylindrical and slim. The head is flattened in front of the gill slits and has a greatly elongated and flattened snout with the saw-like rostrum typical of saw sharks. The rostrum has a distinctive pair of barbels in front of the nostrils, large and small teeth that are close together on the side edge of the "saw", and more or less large spines on the underside. In contrast to Anna's six- gill saw shark , the rostrum of Kaja's six-gill saw shark is relatively long and the number of teeth on the rostrum sides is correspondingly higher (21 to 31 large teeth). The length of the rostrum and head is around 38 to 40% of the total length. In Kaja's six-gill saw shark, the rostrum is significantly narrowed between the base of the barbels and the nostrils. The barbels are in the middle of the rostrum. In the upper jaw, the shark species has 38 to 43 rows of small teeth with conical tips and broad bases.
Kaja's six-gill sawshark is colored light brown on the back with two thin yellow stripes. The belly side is plain white. There are two dark vertical stripes on the rostrum. The fins show narrow white edges on their rear edges.
Systematics
Kaja's six-gill saw shark was described in a revision of the genus Pliotrema published in March 2020 together with Anna's six-gill saw shark ( Pliotrema annae ) by the German ichthyologist Simon Weigmann and some employees and named after his daughter. The genus Pliotrema described in 1906 by the British ichthyologist Charles Tate Regan was previously considered to be monotypical .
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c Simon Weigmann, Ofer Gon, Ruth H. Leeney, Ellen Barrowclift, Per Berggren, Narriman Jiddawi, Andrew J. Temple: Revision of the sixgill sawsharks, genus Pliotrema (Chondrichthyes, Pristiophoriformes), with descriptions of two new species and a redescription of P. warreni Regan. PLOS ONE , March 2020, doi: 10.1371 / journal.pone.0228791