Resumen de New Geographical Record of the Burmese Bamboo Shark, Chiloscyllium burmensis (Orectolobiformes: Hemiscylliidae), from Bangladesh Waters

Md. Sagir Ahmed, Nishat Zahan Chowdhury, Sujan Kumar Datta, Ayesha Akhter Zhilik

• We report the first geographical record of the Burmese bamboo shark, Chiloscyllium burmensis (Orectolobiformes: Hemiscylliidae) from the coast of Bay of Bengal, Bangladesh. Three specimens (two males and one female) of C. burmensis were collected on 22nd March 2018, from the Bangladesh Fisheries Development Corporation Fish Landing Center of Cox’s Bazar. Morphometric and molecular approach were applied for taxonomic identification. The shark showed a body slender, snout blunt, nostrils subterminal and well separated from snout tip. Mouth slightly closer to eyes than snout tip, labial folds connected across chin by a dermal fold. Pectoral and pelvic fins are relatively thin. The key characteristics of this species are small eyes, less than 1.25% of total length (TL); distance from vent to tail tip more than 67% of TL; head length less than 15.8% of TL; distance from nose tip to vent less than 31% of TL. The morphometric and DNA barcoding data confirmed the presence of C. burmensis in Bangladesh. This report updates the geographical distribution for this species confirming its presence in the coastal region of Bangladesh.