Insights into the Urogymnid whiprays (Chondrichthyes: Batoidea) in the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman, with an amendment of their diagnostic characteristics and dispersal range Author Golzarianpour, Kiavash 0000-0003-3874-0947 School of Biology and Center of Excellence in Phylogeny of living organisms, College of Science, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran Department of Biology, Faculty of Sciences, Semnan University, Semnan, Iran & kiavash. pro @ gmail. com; https: // orcid. org / 0000 - 0003 - 3874 - 0947 kiavash.pro@gmail.com Author Malek, Masoumeh School of Biology and Center of Excellence in Phylogeny of living organisms, College of Science, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran Department of Biology, Faculty of Sciences, Semnan University, Semnan, Iran Author Golestaninasab, Mehdi Author Sarafrazi, Alimorad Insect Taxonomy Research Department, Iranian Research Institute of Plant Protection, Tehran, Iran Author Kochmann, Judith 0000-0001-6312-7859 Institute of Ecology, Diversity and Evolution, Goethe University, Frankfurt / M., Germany & Senckenberg Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre; Senckenberg Gesellschaft für Naturforschung; Frankfurt / M., Germany & judith. kochmann @ senckenberg. de; https: // orcid. org / 0000 - 0001 - 6312 - 7859 judith.kochmann@senckenberg.de Author Klimpel, Sven 0000-0002-9191-3256 Institute of Ecology, Diversity and Evolution, Goethe University, Frankfurt / M., Germany & Senckenberg Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre; Senckenberg Gesellschaft für Naturforschung; Frankfurt / M., Germany & Klimpel @ bio. uni-frankfurt. de; https: // orcid. org / 0000 - 0002 - 9191 - 3256 limpel@bio.uni-frankfurt.de text Zootaxa 2020 2020-07-23 4819 2 316 334 journal article 8911 10.11646/zootaxa.4819.2.5 2794c243-ce13-420b-8622-73af7ac074fa 1175-5326 4396954 CAF1F341-83D8-4F93-97CF-FAFCD99752AF Himantura leoparda or Himantura uarnak ? Both species, H. leopard and H. uarnak , have an extended dispersal range within the Indo-west Pacific ( Last et al. 2016b ), which indicates an overlap of their habitat. Although Almoji et al. (2015) noted that there is a species complex, they reported H. uarnak as the only valid species in the Persian Gulf and misidentified the photo of H. leoparda as H. uarnak . Recently, Jabado et al. (2018) recorded well-documented data on the presence of both species in UAE waters. Their conservative frequency estimation counted more individuals of H. uarnak than H. leoparda . Despite higher frequency of H. uarnak , we never succeeded in capturing this species from northern waters of the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman . Henderson et al. (2016) and Last et al. (2016a) sequenced several specimens of H. leoparda from Oman , Bahrain , and Iran . Unfortunately, these sequence data have not been deposited in Gen-Bank, which prevented us from doing a precise comparison. Moreover, the specimens sequenced here are closely grouped with H. leoparda (GN4575) from Indonesia with an average p-distance of 1.85 ±0.1%. Henderson et al. (2016) considered this amount of difference as an intraspecific variation.