The family Pristiophoridae belonging to the order Pristiophoriformes consists of about 8 species and 2 genera in the world. Among them, only one species (Pristiophorus japonicus) is distributed in northwestern Pacific. The family is characterized by h...
The family Pristiophoridae belonging to the order Pristiophoriformes consists of about 8 species and 2 genera in the world. Among them, only one species (Pristiophorus japonicus) is distributed in northwestern Pacific. The family is characterized by having an elongated and flattened rostrum with laterally projecting a low of sharp teeth. In order to clarify variability of local populations of P. japonicus, we investigated 16 individuals collected from four locations (Korea, n=6; Miyagi, n=1; Kochi Pref., n=1; Okinawa, n=8) for morphological and molecular analyses. Morphological analysis showed that there may exist three morphotypes, of which A morphotype (Korea, Miyagi, Kochi Pref.) has a short snout (26.8% of TL), being most similar to syntypes of P. japonicus. On the other hand, B morphotype (Okinawa) has a long (31.7% of TL) and wider snout (snout width at nostrils 5.2 times pre-oral length) and, C morphotype (Okinawa) has a long (31.7% of TL) and narrower snout (6.3 times). Molecular analysis using mitochondrial DNA cytochrome b DNA sequences (386 base pairs) showed that the K2P distance between A and C morphotypes were 2.1~2.7%, but those within A morphotype were 0.0~0.5%. We identified A morphotype as P. japonicus, and designated B and C morphotypes as Pristiophorus sp. 1 and Pristiophorus sp. 2, respectively. Further studies are required to elucidate the taxonomic status of two morphotypes of the sawshark in Okinawa.