ZSI reports new electric ray species from the southeastern Arabian Sea

The Zoological Survey of India announced on October 27, 2026, that its scientists and collaborators had described Tetronarce ramanamurthyi, commonly named the Arabian Black Electric Ray, from the southeastern Arabian Sea. ZSI says the finding is the first confirmed record of the genus Tetronarce in the northern Indian Ocean.

The description is based on nine specimens collected off India's southwestern coast. According to the official release, the research combined physical characteristics with mitochondrial DNA analysis and was published in the taxonomy journal Zootaxa. The release does not date specimen collection; October 27 is the announcement date.

The work was conducted under the Ministry of Earth Sciences' Deep Ocean Mission project on deep-sea cartilaginous fishes. The research team includes ZSI's Marine Biology Regional Centre in Chennai and a collaborator at the Pacific Shark Research Center in the United States. These findings concern deep-sea biodiversity; they do not establish a new coastal hazard or an observed population increase.

Source: Zoological Survey of India / Press Information Bureau, Kolkata, October 27, 2026. KROV reporting and Telugu adaptation based on the official release.