Thorny skate

Taxobox

---

name = Thorny skate
regnum = Animalia
Chordata
classis = Chondrichthyes
subclassis = Elasmobranchii
superordo = Batoidea
ordo = Rajiformes
familia = Rajidae
genus = Amblyraja
species = A. radiata
binomial = Amblyraja radiata
binomial_authority = Donovan, 1808

The Thorny skate ("Amblyraja radiata") is a species of fish in Rajidae family. It mainly lives near the bottom of the coastline of North Atlantic Ocean in depths ranging from 20 to 1000 metres and temperatures from 1 to 10 degrees Celsius. The length of it's body and tail is generally slightly less than 1 meter and width is about half a meter. It's underside is smooth, but the upper side is, as the name suggest, very rough with many small thorns all over and 13-17 larger ones in line from the back of the head to end of the tail. The top side is brown with possibly black spots and the underside is white. It has a hard, roughly triangular snout and a tail, which is shorter than it's body. Eats crustaceans, small fish and worms. Produces egg capsules, which are 3.4-8.9 cm long and 2.3-6.8 cm wide, which hatch outside the body. Originally named Raja radiata.

References

http://www.fishbase.org/Summary/SpeciesSummary.php?id=2565#

http://www.flmnh.ufl.edu/fish/Gallery/Descript/ThornySkate/ThornySkate.html