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Systema Chondrichthyes
This is a
comprehensive account and analysis of the systematics and general
biology of living cartilaginous fishes, and including an annotated
taxonomic catalog of the living species of cartilaginous fishes with
literature citations, type designations, synonyms, type localities,
and discussions of nomenclatural and systematic problems. This is a
synthetic and comprehensive review of the classification,
morphology, biology and evolution of living cartilaginous fishes,
with a broader and more academic scope but complementary to the FAO
species catalogs and species sheets. It is predicated for a World
Wide Web site.
FAO Projects
L.J.V. Compagno has worked with
the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations since
1978 on various projects, the latest of which are:
- The West-Central Pacific species sheets for
sharks, batoids, and chimaeroids (to be published in 1998).
- A revision of the 1984 FAO shark catalog to be
published in 1999, along with an ETI version of the Catalog on
CD-ROM and possibly an on-line shark catalog on the FAO Web site.
- An FAO catalog of world batoids to be
coauthored with Dr. P. Last (CSIRO, Hobart, Tasmania) and other
batoid specialists and aiming for publication by the year 2000.
- A revision of the shark section for the
West-Central Atlantic, to be published in the year 2000.
- Consultations for a multi-authored FAO Action
Plan on conservation and management of sharklike fishes, to be
finalized in late 1998.
Freshwater elasmobranchs
A detailed review
was published in 1995 on the systematics, distribution, and
conservation status of freshwater elasmobranchs with special
emphasis on the precarious conservation status of most of these
fishes. The review helped draw the attention of international
conservation and management organizations including IUCN, CITES, and
FAO to the unique problems of freshwater elasmobranchs. SRC has
input to the UK Darwin Project in Malaysia studying freshwater
elasmobranchs. SRC contributed to the future listing of sawfish,
river sharks, and river stingrays on CITES and in the IUCN Red List.
SRC is also involved in a taxonomic review of the river sharks,
genus Glyphis.
Systematics, zoogeography and general
biology of cartilagenous fishes
Much of this basic research feeds into the FAO Catalogs of world sharks (first revision), batoids, and
chimaeroids, on FAO regional guides, on work applied to
chondrichthyan conservation by the IUCN, on revisions of Smith's Sea
Fishes, as well as to work on the systematics and zoogeography of
southern African cartilaginous fishes. Some items include systematic
reviews of sawfishes, sharkfin guitarfishes, southern African
Rhinobatos, and descriptions of new species of torpedo rays,
houndsharks, and catsharks, as well as an ecological study of South
African catshark and a morphological study of the circulatory system
in devil rays.
White shark biology
A multifaceted research
project on the white shark (Carcharodon carcharias) was
started at the South African Museum was started in 1990. A field
project concentrates on behavioral ecology and sociobiology of this
misunderstood apical predator. Work on a monograph of the skeletal
morphology of the white shark (in preparation) with Dr. M. Gottfried
and Mr. C. Bowman was instrumental in preparation of a full-sized
(12 meter long) reconstruction of the skeleton of the megatooth
shark, Carcharodon megalodon at the Calvert Marine Museum,
with a copy provided by the South African Museum.
Conservation and management of
cartilagenous fishes SRC works to promote an alternative, realistic, unemotional,
positive, conservation-minded view of cartilaginous fishes in South
Africa and worldwide. It works with fisheries agencies, including
FAO and Sea Fisheries Research Institute in South Africa, and
conservation bodies, including the IUCN Shark Specialist Group,
TRAFFIC, and the World Wide Fund for Nature, to promote conservation
and rational management of cartilaginous fishes. L.J.V. Compagno is
Vice-Chair of the IUCN - SSG Subequatorial African Region, has
contributed to the IUCN Action Plan, Red Data Book, and Red List,
and prepared a report in 1993 on the cartilaginous fishes of
subequatorial Africa.
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