Growth, maturity, and diet of the pearl whipray (Fontitrygon margaritella) from the Bijagos Archipelago, Guinea-Bissau.

ABSTRACT: The pearl whipray Fontitrygon margaritella (Compagno & Roberts, 1984) is a common elasmobranch in coastal western African waters. However, knowledge on their life-history and trophic ecology remains limited. Therefore, we aimed to determine the growth, maturity and diet of F. margaritella from the Bijagós Archipelago in Guinea-Bissau. Growth was modelled with: von Bertalanffy, Gompertz and logistic functions. Model selection revealed no model significantly outperformed another. The sampled age ranged from less than 1 to 7 years (1.8 ± 1.9 cm, mean ± standard deviation) and size (disc width) ranged from 12.2 to 30.6 cm (18.7 ± 5.2 cm). Size-at-maturity was estimated at 20.3 cm (95% CI [18.8-21.8 cm]) for males and 24.3 cm for females (95% CI [21.9-26.5 cm]), corresponding ages

SUBMITTER: Clements ON 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8908892 | biostudies-literature | 2022

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature