#arhynchobatidae

[every-day-creechur]

Roughtail Skate Bathyraja trachura

Lives in the North Pacific Ocean. Its habitat is benthic, mud, canyon walls, and other hard substrate.

[todropscience]

A new deep-sea softnose skate, the Western Blue Skate Notoraja hesperindica, is described based on six specimens caught in deep water at 1600 m depths off southern Mozambique and northwestern Madagascar in the western Indian Ocean. 

This blue skate is a medium-sized species, reaching a total length of at least 55 cm, and is the only Notoraja species known from the western Indian Ocean and differs with other skate in the area by its intense dark blue-grayish coloration.

Reference:  Weigmann et al.,  2021 Notoraja hesperindica sp. nov., a new colorful deep-sea softnose skate (Elasmobranchii, Rajiformes, Arhynchobatidae) and first generic record from the western Indian Ocean. Marine Biodiversity.

Photo: a male Western Blue Skate, with a remarkable cyanine blue color.

[todropscience]

TWO NEW ELASMOBRANCH SPECIES FROM PAPUA NEW GUINEA

The deepwater chondrichthyan fauna of Papua New Guinea is very poorly understood, despite its rich biodiversity. But recent surveys conducted between 2010 and 2014 by the RV Alis have provided new records of shark and ray species from this region.

Collected during the 2012 expedition off Madang, and reported as softnose skate (Insentiraja subtilispinosa), recent examination of these specimens revealed that they actually represent an undescribed species, recently named Papuan velvet skate (Notoraja sereti), belonging to a subgroup known as the ‘velcro skates’ (because they are covered dorsally and ventrally with fine spinular denticles). This species represents the only species of softnose skate (Family Arhynchobatidae) currently known to occur in Papua New Guinea.

- The Papuan Velvet Skate (Notoraja sereti), lives at depths of 800–980 m.

Also, examination of lantern sharks collected during these surveys (currently housed in Taiwanese fish collections) showed a new species. One of the lantern shark were mistakenly identified at first as Etmopterus brachyurus, but upon detailed examination were determined to represent an undescribed species based on several differences in key characteristics. Furthermore, DNA sequence analysis also confirmed a new species. The new species called Papuan lanternshark (Etmopterus samadiae) is known from off the northern Papua New Guinea mainland, from west of Kairiru Island in East Sepik Province to off Lae in the Huon Gulf (Morobe Province) and at a depth range of 340 to 785 m. 

- Lateral view of Etmopterus samadiae, adult male fresh and post-preservation (click to enlarge)

White et al., 2017 A new species of velvet skate, Notoraja sereti n.sp. (Rajiformes: Arhynchobatidae) from Papua New Guinea. Zootaxa.

White et al., 2017. Etmopterus samadiae n. sp., a new lanternshark (Squaliformes: Etmopteridae) from Papua New Guinea. Zootaxa

[nitedreamerdesigns]

Featured Species Friday: Deepsea Skate (Bathyraja abyssicola)

Featured Species Friday: Deepsea Skate (Bathyraja abyssicola)

This week’s Featured Species is going to the flat sharks! The Deepsea Skate (Bathyraja abyssicola) is a wide ranging member of the Arhynchobatidae family. These skates have been found through the Northern Pacific Ocean from Japan to the Bering Sea, and south to Baja California, Mexico and recently observed for the first time in the Galapagos Marine Reserve (Cerutti-Pereyra, et al., 2018).  The…

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[oceanforsharks]

Featured Species Friday: Deepsea Skate (Bathyraja abyssicola)

Featured Species Friday: Deepsea Skate (Bathyraja abyssicola)

This week’s Featured Species is going to the flat sharks! The Deepsea Skate (Bathyraja abyssicola) is a wide ranging member of the Arhynchobatidae family. These skates have been found through the Northern Pacific Ocean from Japan to the Bering Sea, and south to Baja California, Mexico and recently observed for the first time in the Galapagos Marine Reserve (Cerutti-Pereyra, et al., 2018).  The…

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[todropscience]

A single specimen of a new Bathyraja skate was collected by an International team of researchers in 2003 during a survey of the deepwater biota of the northern Tasman Sea by the New Zealand FRV Tangaroa. This skate, labelled the ‘blonde skate’ by voyage participants, is uniformly white on all surfaces of the body and the skin is partly translucent, according to its shape and taxonomic characteristics was clearly a new species. The species was formaly descrited this year.

The pacific blonde skate (Bathyraja pacifica) is a demersal skate who lives at  a depth range of 1760–1789 m, and is a  large species of rajids with 122 cm of total length. Other similar and probably closely related Bathyraja specimens have been caught in seas to the south of New Zealand since the discovery of this species, but their identity is yet to be confirmed.

Reference Last, Stewart & Séret. 2016. A new temperate deepwater skate of the genus Bathyraja (Rajoidei: Arhynchobatidae) from the South-West Pacific. Zootaxa.

[todropscience]

A NEW DEEP WATER SKATE HAS BEEN DISCOVERED IN THE EASTERN PACIFIC OCEAN

Meet the Barbedwire-tailed skate or raya de púas in spanish. The discovery of Notoraja martinezi, is the 13th for the genus.

With a heart-shaped, medium-size, dark brownish dorsal and ventral surface, this new species of skate is described from four specimens collected from the eastern Central Pacific from Costa Rica to Ecuador and between depths of 1256–1472 m.  Is named in recognition of Jimmy Martínez, an Ecuadorian Biologist, who collected and kindly provided the holotype of the new species.

The discovery of Barbedwire-tailed skate represents the only known species of the genus Notoraja from the eastern Pacific, occurring between Costa Rica and Ecuador.  

- adult male holotype in dorsal and ventral view.

photographs by Francisco J. Concha

Reference: Concha et al. 2016. Notoraja martinezi sp. nov., a new species of deepwater skate and the first record of the genus Notoraja Ishiyama, 1958 (Rajiformes: Arhynchobatidae) from the eastern Pacific Ocean. Zootaxa