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Barbatia decussatais a member of intertidal communities occurring at rocky shores in the northern Persian Gulf. Population dynamic for this clam was explored from August 2011 to September 2012 on rocky intertidal shores in the northern Persian Gulf. The results showed that the Ark clam mostly occurred in the middle followed by lower intertidal zones and its distribution was associated with substrate morphology mostly occurring on shaded sides of boulders and cobbles followed by in crevices. Total shell length (SL) for 7064 individuals of Ark clams ranged from 2.21 to 53.93 mm. The growth parameters for the von Bertalanffy function wereL∞ = 57.75 mm,K = 0.47 year− 1, andt0 = − 0.29 year. The growth performance index (Φ′), longevity, asymptotic weight (W∞), and natural mortality were 3.2, 6.29 years, 40.38 g, and 1.79 year− 1, respectively. The exponent “b” value was 3.181 indicating that this clam bears a positive allometric growth pattern. The recruitment pattern was continuous with two major peaks. The sex ratio did not deviate from 1:1. The SL–total live weight (TLW) relationship, the SL–wet weight (WW) relationship, the SL–dry weight (DW) relationship, and the SL–ash-free dry weight (AFDW) relationship were TLW = 0.0001 × SL3.181, WW = 0.000015SL3.347, DW = 0.000009SL3.047, and AFDW = 0.000009SL3.22, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We provide cytochrome c oxidase subunit 1 (COI) barcode sequences of fishes of the Nayband National Park, Persian Gulf, Iran. Industrial activities, ecological considerations and goals of The Fish Barcode of Life campaign make it crucial that fish species residing in the park be identified. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of barcoding data on fishes of the Persian Gulf. We examined 187 individuals representing 76 species, 56 genera and 32 families. The data flagged potentially cryptic species of Gerres filamentosus and Plectorhinchus schotaf. 16S rDNA data on these species are provided. Exclusion of these two potential cryptic species resulted in a mean COI intraspecific distance of 0.18%, and a mean inter- to intraspecific divergence ratio of 66.7. There was no overlap between maximum Kimura 2-parameter distances among conspecifics (1.66%) and minimum distance among congeneric species (6.19%). Barcodes shared among species were not observed. Neighbour-joining analysis showed that most species formed cohesive sequence units with little variation. Finally, the comparison of 16 selected species from this study with meta-data of conspecifics from Australia, India, China and South Africa revealed high interregion divergences and potential existence of six cryptic species. Pairwise interregional comparisons were more informative than global divergence assessments with regard to detection of cryptic variation. Our analysis exemplifies optimal use of the expanding barcode data now becoming available. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]