Freshwater sharks and rays

Hang on, I thought sharks and rays only live in the ocean? That’s true for about 95%. However, there are species of elasmobranchs (sharks and rays) that occur regularly at low salinities, often beyond the tidal reaches of the sea. These make up around 5% of living elasmobranchs (roughly 56 out of 11...

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Detalhes bibliográficos
Autores: Lucifora, Luis Omar, Carvalho, Marcelo R. de, Kyne, Peter M., White, William T.
Formato: artículo
Estado:Versión publicada
Fecha de publicación:2015
País:Argentina
Recursos:Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas
Repositorio:CONICET Digital (CONICET)
Idioma:inglés
OAI Identifier:oai:ri.conicet.gov.ar:11336/77875
Acesso em linha:http://hdl.handle.net/11336/77875
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palavra-chave:Sharks
Rays
https://purl.org/becyt/ford/1.6
https://purl.org/becyt/ford/1
Descrição
Resumo:Hang on, I thought sharks and rays only live in the ocean? That’s true for about 95%. However, there are species of elasmobranchs (sharks and rays) that occur regularly at low salinities, often beyond the tidal reaches of the sea. These make up around 5% of living elasmobranchs (roughly 56 out of 1154 described species). Species that are confined to freshwaters are termed obligate freshwater species, and comprise all the freshwater stingrays (family Potamotrygonidae) and several stingrays (Dasyatidae). Species that can tolerate a wide range of salinities, from freshwater to brackish and/or marine waters, are termed ‘euryhaline species’. Euryhaline species include sawfishes (Pristidae), several whaler sharks (Carcharhinidae), one skate (Rajidae), and a number of stingrays (Dasyatidae). They range in maximum size from only 20–30 cm disc width in several freshwater stingrays, to at least 6.5 m total length in the Largetooth Sawfish (Pristis pristis).