Thread: Sawfish sword
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Old 21st July 2005, 03:26 PM   #15
fearn
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Thanks Rick. That's the point about CITES. As for seven species... here is some of the grad student's (Vicente Faria) work that he's presenting at a conference this year. Here's the abstract (note the title):

FARIA, VICENTE V.; MCDAVITT, MATTHEW T.

Trying again two centuries later: an essay on the various species of sawfish
(Chondrichthyes, Pristiformes)

The sawfishes, family Pristidae, is comprised of seven nominal species: Anoxypristis cuspidata, Pristis pectinata, P. zijsron, P. clavata, P. perotteti, P. microdon and P. pristis. However, due to considerable taxonomic confusion this number may in fact vary between four and ten. Among the reasons for this taxonomic disarray is that many of the original species descriptions were extremely abbreviated, and in some cases not even based on specimens, or based only on isolated anatomical parts; only two of the six type specimens are available for examination today; poor representation of specimens in collections, which mostly consist of dried rostra or very young specimens; and scarcity of these animals in their natural habitat due to overfishing. In the present study we reviewed sawfish taxonomy based on evidence from (1) morphological (external morphometric and meristic characters) and molecular data (DNA sequence from one mitochondrial gene, NADH-2) of representative specimens, (2) museum records and historical specimens, (3) distributional information derived from archaeological remains and anthropological artifacts and (4) review of the primary literature. Inferences based on our results are discussed in the context of sawfish diversity, geographical distribution and historical taxonomy.

Basically, he's saying that the distinctions between species are based on missing or degraded specimens, and he's trying to straighten the record out. This is normal work, even for CITES-listed species (most rare things have not been well studied). It's also why I'd suggest contacting Mr. Faria and getting an expert opinion on the source of the saw.

Fearn
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