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Home > GCR > Vol. 37 > Iss. 1 (2026)

 

Alternate Title

Modern Record of the Genus Aetomylaeus (Garman 1908) in the Caribbean Sea: Vagrancy or Hidden Biodiversity?

Document Type

Article

Abstract

In 2014, an unidentified eagle ray was incidentally caught using artisanal bottom—set gillnets in the coastal waters of Venezuela. The dental plates were recovered and deposited in a local ichthyological collection. Morphological analysis of the dental plate indicates that the specimen belongs to the eagle ray genus Aetomylaeus Garman, 1908 (Myliobatiformes, Myliobatidae), and constitutes the first documented evidence of the genus in the Caribbean Sea and in the Western Atlantic Ocean. Comparative assessment of the dental morphology with extant and fossil eagle rays supports the generic assignment but precludes confident identification at the species level due to pronounced intra and interspecific variability in dental plate morphology within the genus. Three hypotheses are proposed to explain these plates: 1) the persistence of an unknown relict and undescribed population of Aetomylaeus sp, which survived the separation of the Caribbean from the Pacific Ocean, 2) long— distance vagrancy of Aetomylaeus bovinus from the eastern Atlantic, and 3) the plates do not belong to a specimen of the genus Aetomylaeus, but rather belong to a hybrid of 2 extant eagle ray genera of the Caribbean. These new data highlight the need for further research on the diversity of eagle rays in the region, as most species of the genus Aetomylaeus are categorized under some degree of threat or as Data Deficient.

First Page

29

Last Page

36

Artificial Intelligence (AI) Use Statement

No artificial intelligence (AI) was used in the preparation of this manuscript

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