In the Indian Trans-Himalaya, Pallas’s cat Otocolobus manul is reported exclusively from Ladakh, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Sikkim. In Ladakh, it has been reported primarily from the south-east, with no prior evidence of its occurrence in the north. In this study, we documented the first record of Pallas’s cat in the Karakoram Wildlife Sanctuary in the Nubra Valley, northern Ladakh. We identified the species based on the non-invasive genetic analysis of a morphologically ambiguous scat sample collected during a study on dietary patterns of sympatric carnivores. DNA-based species identification confirmed the presence of Pallas’s cat. We also identified prey remains, of pika Ochotona spp. and Himalayan marmot Marmota himalayana, in the scat. Our record extends the known range of Pallas’s cat into northern Ladakh and adds a new mammal species to the documented fauna of the Karakoram Wildlife Sanctuary. We recommend a comprehensive assessment of distribution, population, diet, habitat and potential threats to this elusive species to ensure its long-term survival in this landscape.

The fortune jack (Seriola peruana), a pelagic fish typically found along the Tropical Eastern Pacific, has been recorded in the northernmost Gulf of California (GC) region. The first record in the Upper Gulf and habitat expansion of S. peruana is reported based on the meristic, morphometric, and biological data of three specimens caught by local artisanal fishermen in April 2024. The lack of commercial value likely explains the region's absence of records for this species. The increased presence of S. peruana distribution in the Upper GC could have significant ecological implications, which warrants further fish habitat use and climate change research.

Cheilopogon arcticeps (Günther, 1866) is recorded for the first time from the Indian coastal waters. Two specimens of C. arcticeps (158–167 mm SL) were collected from the Petuaghat fishing harbour of Purba Medinipur, West Bengal, India. The present paper reports the species for the first time from Indian waters and thus, the distributional range of the species is extended from Western Pacific Ocean to the Bay of Bengal, Indian Ocean. This paper provides more detailed information on the taxonomy and morphometric of the poorly known species.

The ocellated shrimp goby, Tomiyamichthys russus was recorded from peninsular India based on a single specimen from Royapuram Fishing Harbour (13°07′24.49′′ N; 80°17′52.20′′E), Chennai, Southeast coast of India. The specimen was identified as the ocellated shrimp goby, T. russus by identification characteristics such as crosswise rows of small orange spots surrounded by minute dull black circles in the post-orbital and pre-dorsal region; posterior area of the gill membrane orange; operculum with pale violet traces. The morphometric characteristics were compared with the previous reports of ocellated shrimp goby. The present finding is the documentation of rare ocellated shrimp goby from the peninsular Indian coast.

Two separate sightings, two years apart, of the mimic octopus Thaumoctopus mimicus Norman & Hochberg, 2005 are reported from the Inhambane Province of southern Mozambique within the protected waters of the Vilanculos Coastal Wildlife Sanctuary. Individuals were encountered in May 2020 and 2022 in shallow waters, at a depth of less than 30 cm. Both individuals were fully exposed moving along a sandy substrate at the water's edge in a tidal flat. These represent the first documented sightings of T. mimicus in Mozambique, confirming the occurrence of the species along the eastern coast of Africa and extending this species' known range west from the Arabian Sea and south from the Red Sea.

Warren's sixgill sawshark, Pliotrema warreni, is confirmed for the first time in Namibian waters, from two specimens. One specimen was collected by fisheries observers on a vessel fishing in southern Namibian waters in March 2010. The other was found dead on a beach in central coastal Namibia, in August 2014. The West African catshark, Scyliorhinus cervigoni, is documented for the first time in northern Namibia, from a specimen recorded during surveys of chondrichthyan bycatch on a commercial bottom trawler. This extends the species' range southwards from Angola. Records of bull sharks Carcharhinus leucas are also documented, providing a better understanding of their distribution in Namibia. Several anglers have reported catching bull sharks in the Kunene River (from the riverbank on the Namibian side) and just south of the river mouth, along the Namibian coast.

Photographs of a single shark specimen (1040 mm in total length) caught in the Oyodo River estuary, Miyazaki Prefecture, Kyushu, Japan, by a recreational angler and uploaded to the social networking service Facebook, were identified as a juvenile specimen of the bull shark Carcharhinus leucas. The photographic record, now deposited in the Kanagawa Prefectural Museum of Natural History collection, represents the northernmost record of this species in the western Pacific Ocean. Although C. leucas is known to utilize primarily tropical estuarine habitats as nursery grounds, a few reports exist regarding the utilization of subtropical and warm-temperate latitude estuaries, as in this case. From the perspectives of species conservation and shark-bite mitigation in warm-temperate latitudes, further information on C. leucas occurrence around its northern distribution limit is required.

A recent survey of The Canyons Marine Conservation Zone provided noteworthy records of several crustacean species, which are presented here. The geographic or bathymetric ranges of several species are considerably extended, while the genus Rhachotropis, which has not previously been reported from British waters, is represented by two species. Other species that were previously only known in British waters from very few, often historical, records are also reported.

Pangolins are some of the most overexploited but least studied mammals. The giant pangolin Smutsia gigantea is the largest of the eight pangolin species, measuring up to 180 cm in length and weighing up to 40 kg. It is a nocturnal, solitary species that occurs at low densities and little is known regarding its biology and ecology. It is distributed widely across the rainforests and forest savannah mosaics of equatorial Africa but its exact range extent is unknown. Apart from a single record in Kenya predating 1971, the eastern limit of its range was thought only to extend to central Uganda and western Tanzania. Here we present three spatially separate records confirming the presence of this species in Kenyan Afromontane forests. The three records are c. 120 km apart and c. 500 km east of the nearest confirmed giant pangolin population in Uganda. These records represent a significant range extension for the species and highlight the biodiversity and conservation importance of the Afromontane forests of western Kenya.

We report two separate sightings of the ornate eagle ray Aetomylaeus vespertilio (Bleeker, 1852) in the Bazaruto Seascape of southern Mozambique. In May 2021, a single individual was encountered at a depth of 30 m during an in-water survey in the Bazaruto Archipelago National Park. Another solitary individual was documented ~55 km away during an aerial survey in the Vilanculos Coastal Wildlife Sanctuary three days later. These represent the first documented sightings of A. vespertilio in the Inhambane Province of Mozambique, confirming the presence of the species in the region and extending the known range northward along the south-east African coastline. Given the rarity of reported sightings, additional records are particularly valuable for these threatened and elusive rays in order to expand current knowledge of their distribution and range.

Current literature considers that Nasolamia velox has a limited distribution along the coastline of the Eastern Pacific with sporadic sightings in the Galapagos Archipelago. This study provides evidence of the occurrence of this species at the Revillagigedo Archipelago (18°99′186″N 112°08′44″W), Mexico, using acoustic telemetry and videos taken from 2014 to 2016. We report here movements from a coastal location (National Park Cabo Pulmo) to a group of oceanic islands (Revillagigedo Archipelago) by one single individual, supporting the idea of the potential connectivity of sharks between the Gulf of California and the Revillagigedo Archipelago. This report extends the known distribution of N. velox to 400 km off the mainland coast of the Americas, thereby increasing the knowledge of the distribution of a species commonly reported in fishery landings of the Eastern Pacific.

Recent observations of unusual mass stranding and mortality of two Indian Ocean crustacean species, the swimming crab Charybdis smithii and the mantis shrimp Natosquilla investigatoris, are documented and analysed. Strandings of C. smithii were observed for the first time in the equatorial Indian Ocean, the main area of its pelagic distribution. Strandings of mantis shrimps are reported from throughout the western Indian Ocean; occurrences of mass stranding in the Maldives Archipelago mark an extension of the known range of N. investigatoris into the central Indian Ocean. Mortality of crabs probably represents a ‘catastrophic event’. In contrast, mantis shrimp strandings, which were always associated with a sudden increase of its biomass (‘blooms’), are apparently post-reproduction mortalities indicating potential semelparity for this species.

The roughbar frogfish, Fowlerichthys avalonis, is one of the largest frogfish residents of rocky bottoms, at depths of 10 to 300 m, inhabiting the eastern Pacific. It is an endemic species with a geographic range along the continental shelf from the southern United States to Chile. This study provides evidence for the occurrence of the species at Socorro Island (18°46′19″N 110°53′43″W), Revillagigedo Archipelago, Mexico, obtained from videos taken in a submersible at a depth of 66 m. This report extends the known distribution of F. avalonis to 400 km off the mainland coast of the Americas, and represents the fourth species of the family Antennariidae to be reported for the Revillagigedo Archipelago.

A single specimen of the African spadefish, Tripterodon orbis, was landed in a gill net operating off Visakhapatnam on 13 December 2013. The morphometric and meristic characters of the recorded specimen are described and discussed herein. This is the first occurrence of the species from the north-east coast of India, exhibiting an extension in distribution from the southern to the northern region, along the Bay of Bengal.

The megamouth shark, Megachasma pelagios, is a rare and poorly studied shark. In this paper, the first record of the megamouth shark is reported for Sri Lanka. The shark, a juvenile estimated at 180 cm in total length, was caught in a gillnet in close proximity (<92 km) to the Negombo fisheries harbour (7°12′11.67″N 79°49′44.35″E).

Two chaenopsid fishes, Neoclinus chihiroe and Neoclinus lacunicola, were collected from Sadogashima Island, the Sea of Japan. The collected specimens represent the northernmost records of the two species and the first voucher specimens from the Sea of Japan. Morphological information and colour photographs, including underwater photos, of these specimens were provided. Additional photographic evidence from Tobi-shima Island, ~100 km north-north-east of Sadogashima Island, further extended the northernmost record of Neoclinus lacunicola.

Gymnothorax prolatus is recorded for the first time from the Indian Ocean on the basis of four specimens collected in the Bay of Bengal off India and one from the Arabian Sea off Pakistan. These records extend the range of the species from Taiwan to the north-western Indian Ocean.

The presence of the fish species Enneapterygius pusillus and confirmation of Parablennius opercularis occurrence in the Kuwaiti waters of the northern Arabian Gulf regions are both reported here. One adult specimen of each species was photographed in the Qit at Binaya patch reef off Al Khiran, in southern Kuwait waters. The pixie triplefin record is a new ichthyofaunal record for the northern Arabian Gulf.

We report the occurrence of the sponge-dwelling snapping shrimp Synalpheus dardeaui (Decapoda: Alpheidae) for the first time from Porto Seguro (Bahia, Brazil) and record an additional sponge host for the species, Ircinia cf. strobilina. Synalpheus dardeaui was previously known from Florida and some localities in the Caribbean Sea. Therefore, the present finding represents the first record of the species in the south-western Atlantic, extending its southern distribution limit by a latitude of 28° from Curaçao (12°N) to Porto Seguro (16°S). Variations between the Brazilian and Florida–Caribbean materials are discussed and illustrated.

The cookiecutter shark, Isistius brasiliensis, is confirmed for the first time from the eastern North Pacific Ocean. The shark, a female 432 mm in total length, was caught in a sablefish pot at a depth of 1132 m off San Nicolas Island, California, USA (32°59′05″N 120°25′99″W).