Identification complexity of critically endangered Squatina squatina (Linnaeus, 1758) and Squatina aculeata Cuvier, 1829 in the Mediterranean Sea (Turkey)

Sharks and rays, besides their economic importance, are ecologically important organisms with a diverse group.After a pregnant Squatinasp.was captured as by-catch, Akyol et al. (2015) published this species as Squatina squatinawhile the COI and 16S rDNA analysis demonstrated that the species is S. aculeata. This complexity revealed that utilizing morphologic identificationsolelymight not be enough to distinguish these two Squatinaspecies accurately. We aim to compare morphologic and molecular techniques during species identification of critically endangered S. squatinaand S. aculeata.Two different gene regions were used for molecular identification of 3 Squatinaspecimensobtained from the Aegean coasts of Turkey. Sequence analysis of two gene regions wasconducted after PCR analysis. An aligneddata set was used for creating phylogenetic trees.The results demonstrated that the previously identified S. squatinaspecimen was revealed as S. aculeataafter molecular analysis. Two other specimenswhich were morphologically identified as S. squatinademonstratedthe same results both with molecular and morphological analysis. Our results suggest that adopting morphological identification as the only tool is not enough to accurately determine the Squatinaspecies; both morphological and molecular tools should be used for taxonomical identification of shark species, especially the endangered ones,to assuretheir conservation status.