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Species Diversity
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Abstract
We employed molecular systematic analysis based on mitochondrial D-loop sequences to identify two specimens of ocean sunfish from Omani coastal waters that had previously been identified morphologically as Mola mola (Linnaeus, 1758) and M. ramsayi (Giglioli, 1883). Of the three molecular species that are recognized globally, Mola sp. A, Mola sp. B, and Mola sp. C, we confirmed that both specimens from Oman are Mola sp. A. This result suggested a broader distribution of this species than had ever been thought, but it also revealed a discrepancy between morphological and genetic characters in Mola taxonomy. We reexamined the morphology of the two specimens from Oman to clarify the extent to which the key morphological features correspond with molecular genetic identifications, and discovered errors in the original reports on both specimens.
This work was supported by the Sasakawa Scientific Research Grant from The Japan Science Society (No. 24-506), and Grants-in Aid for Scientific Research (KAKENHI) from the Japanese Society for the Promotion of Science (Nos. 22770079 and 25840134). We would like to thank the Marine Science and Fisheries Centre, the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries, Oman, for giving us the opportunity to work on the sunfish specimens. We also thank two anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments, which helped us to improve the manuscript. The English in our manuscript was reviewed by Dr Lawrence M. Liao (Graduate School of Biosphere Science, Hiroshima University) and the Edanz Group Ltd.
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