New biogeographic data and dna barcodes for the Indian swellshark, Cephaloscyllium silasi (Talwar, 1974) (Elasmobranchii: Carcharhiniformes: Scyliorhinidae), from Andaman waters

Abstract

Indian swellshark, Cephaloscyllium silasi (Talwar, 1974), is reported for the first time in Andaman waters, India which is a considerable extension of its known distribution range with more than 1000 km toward eastern Indian EEZ. This is the first confirmed geographic distributional record of poorly known deep-water Indian swellshark, C. silasi, in the Andaman waters and first outside its type locality. A detailed morphological description of C. silasi collected from Andaman waters and comparison with other known materials along with the molecular barcodes are provided.