About the Authors

Lijo John

Contributed equally to this work with: Lijo John, Siby Philip

Affiliations Marine Biotechnology Division, Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute (CMFRI), Kochi, India, Export Inspection Agency (EIA), Kochi, India

Siby Philip

Contributed equally to this work with: Lijo John, Siby Philip

Affiliations CIMAR/CIIMAR, Centro Interdisciplinar de Investigação Marinha e Ambiental, Rua dos Bragas, Porto, Portugal, Departamento de Biologia, Faculdade de Ciências, Universidade do Porto, Rua do Campo Alegre, Porto, Portugal, Conservation Research Group (CRG), St. Albert’s College, Kochi, India

Neelesh Dahanukar

Affiliations Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER), Pune, India, Zoo Outreach Organization (ZOO), Coimbatore, India

Palakkaparambil Hamsa Anvar Ali

Affiliation Conservation Research Group (CRG), St. Albert’s College, Kochi, India

Josin Tharian

Affiliation Department of Zoology, St. John’s College, Anchal, Kerala, India

Rajeev Raghavan

rajeevraq@hotmail.com (RR); aantunes@ciimar.up.pt (AA)

Affiliations Conservation Research Group (CRG), St. Albert’s College, Kochi, India, Zoo Outreach Organization (ZOO), Coimbatore, India, Durrell Institute of Conservation and Ecology (DICE), University of Kent, Canterbury, United Kingdom, Research Group Zoology: Biodiversity & Toxicology, Center for Environmental Sciences, University of Hasselt, Diepenbeek, Belgium

Agostinho Antunes

rajeevraq@hotmail.com (RR); aantunes@ciimar.up.pt (AA)

Affiliations CIMAR/CIIMAR, Centro Interdisciplinar de Investigação Marinha e Ambiental, Rua dos Bragas, Porto, Portugal, Departamento de Biologia, Faculdade de Ciências, Universidade do Porto, Rua do Campo Alegre, Porto, Portugal

Competing Interests

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: SP RR. Performed the experiments: LJ SP ND PHAA JT RR. Analyzed the data: SP ND AA. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: JT RR LJ AA. Wrote the paper: SP RR ND AA. Collected specimens: LJ SP RR PHAA JT. Carried out morphometric analysis: ND PHAA. Carried out DNA laboratory work: LJ ND. Carried out phylogenetic and species delimitation analysis: SP AA.