First record and DNA Barcoding of Oman cownose ray, Rhinoptera jayakari Boulenger, 1895 from Andaman Sea, India

Strategically located to the southeast of the Bay of Bengal and northwest of the Malay Peninsula, the Andaman Sea houses rich and varied biological diversity both in its flora and fauna which is under explored. The present study reports the occurrence of Oman cownose ray, Rhinoptera jayakari Boulenger, 1895 as a new record from this region. A male specimen with a disc width of 494 mm was landed by a motorized longline boat in Junglighat fishing harbour. Port Blair, Andaman and Nicobar Islands fills the wide gap in the known distribution range of the species. A detailed morphological description of freshly collected specimen in comparison with those from the previous published reports elsewhere was carried out. Molecular marker based taxonomical annotation using Mitochondrial COI gene sequencing confirmed the identity of the specimen.