INVESTIGADORES
BELLEGGIA Mauro
congresos y reuniones científicas
Título:
The Rajidae of the Southwestern Atlantic, an Overview
Autor/es:
FIGUEROA DANIEL E.; BARBINI SANTIAGO; SCENNA LORENA; DELPIANI GABRIELA; SPATH CECILIA; BELLEGGIA MAURO; IZZO LUCIANO
Lugar:
Minneapolis, Minnesota
Reunión:
Congreso; Joint Meeting of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists; 2011
Institución organizadora:
American Society of Ichthyologist and Herpertologists
Resumen:
The Rajidae of the Southwestern Atlantic shows at the genus level an astonishingendemic diversity related to its ecology. Two biogeographic provinces constitute thesouthwestern Atlantic: the northern warm-temperate Argentinean Province and thesouthern cold-temperate Magellan Province. Skates from the former are endemic ofsouthern South America; instead, genera from the latter are cosmopolitans related to theAntarctic ichthyofauna, with Gondwanic distribution, and one of its genus is invader of the Argentine Province. The Argentine continental shelf, one of the largest in the world,possesses ideal conditions for the development of skates: smooth slopes, little relief, 65%sand-covered, located in a temperate transition zone. However, since this region is oneof the youngest in the world, its colonization is also recent. Considering theenvironmental features from its formation in the Cretacic --where ChondrychthyesBatoid teeth are already found-- to nowadays, its evolution has been traumatic. At thebeginning, temperate waters arrived to Antarctica and even Oceania, the opening of theDrake Passage in the Paleogene permitted the entrance of cold waters that severelyaffected the South American cone, and lastly, during the Pleistocenic ice age, thesubtropical sub Antarctic convergence zone moved farther north than at the presenttime. The endemic skates of the Argentine Province could be the most ancient settlers ofthe region. The wide temperature and salinity tolerance range they exhibit is reallysurprising.