Guitarfish

Taxobox
name = Guitarfishes


image_width = 250px
image_caption = Shovelnose guitarfish, "Rhinobatos productus"
regnum = Animalia
phylum = Chordata
classis = Chondrichthyes
subclassis = Elasmobranchii
ordo = Rajiformes
familia = Rhinobatidae
familia_authority = Müller & Henle, 1837
subdivision_ranks = Genera
subdivision = See text.

The guitarfish are a family, Rhinobatidae, of rays. The guitarfish are known for an elongated body with a flattened head and trunk and small ray like wings. The combined range of the various species is tropical, subtropical and temperate waters worldwide. They often travel in large schools. Most adult guitarfish reach five or six feet in length. The Indo-Pacific "Rhynchobatus djiddensis" can weigh 225 kilograms (500 pounds) and grow to 3 meters (ten feet) in length. These fish are bottom feeders, preferring small crustaceans. Their teeth are small and numerous, usually arranged in 65 or 70 rows. Guitarfish are ovoviviparous, with the young hatching out of the eggs before leaving the mother's body. [John Farrand Jr., The Audubon Society Encyclopedia of Animal Life, 1982] The Guitarfish is the "link" between sharks and rays.

Notable species include the Shovelnose guitarfish, "Rhinobatos productus", and the Bowmouth guitarfish, "Rhina ancylostoma".

Classification

The taxonomy of this group is highly uncertain. Some taxonomists put Rhinobatidae in its own order, Rhinobatiformes; others place it in the order Myliobatiformes with the eagle rays and their relatives.

In some classifications the family is split into three, with the genus "Rhina" in the family Rhinidae, and the genus "Rhynchobatus" in the family Rhynochobatidae (or these two genera may be classified together). These families may be raised to the level of orders: Rhiniformes and Rhynchobatiformes, respectively.

This article follows FishBase in including about fifty species in ten genera: [FishBase family | family = Rhinobatidae | year = 2005 | month = August]
* Genus "Aptychotrema"
** Short-snouted shovelnose ray, "Aptychotrema bougainvillii" (Müller & Henle, 1841)
** East Australian shovelnose ray, "Aptychotrema rostrata" (Shaw, 1794)
** Western shovelnose ray, "Aptychotrema vincentiana" (Haacke, 1885)
* Genus "Platyrhina"
** Amoy fanray, "Platyrhina limboonkengi" Tang, 1933
** Fanray, "Platyrhina sinensis" (Bloch & Schneider, 1801)
* Genus "Platyrhinoidis"
** Thornback guitarfish, "Platyrhinoidis triseriata" (Jordan & Gilbert, 1880)
* Genus "Rhina"
** Bowmouth guitarfish, "Rhina ancylostoma" Bloch & Schneider, 1801
* Genus "Rhinobatos"
** White-spotted guitarfish, "Rhinobatos albomaculatus" Norman, 1930
** Annandale's guitarfish, "Rhinobatos annandalei" Norman, 1926
** Lesser sandshark, "Rhinobatos annulatus" Müller & Henle, 1841
** Bluntnose guitarfish, "Rhinobatos blochii" Müller & Henle, 1841
** Blackchin guitarfish, "Rhinobatos cemiculus" Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, 1817
** Taiwan guitarfish, "Rhinobatos formosensis" Norman, 1926
** Speckled guitarfish, "Rhinobatos glaucostigma" Jordan & Gilbert, 1883
** Sharpnose guitarfish, "Rhinobatos granulatus" Cuvier, 1829
** Halavi's guitarfish, "Rhinobatos halavi" (Forsskål, 1775)
** Slender guitarfish, "Rhinobatos holcorhynchus" Norman, 1922
** Brazilian guitarfish, "Rhinobatos horkelii" Müller & Henle, 1841
** Angel fish, "Rhinobatos hynnicephalus" Richardson, 1846
** Spineback guitarfish, "Rhinobatos irvinei" Norman, 1931
** "Rhinobatos jimbaranensis" Last, White & Fahmi, 2006 [cite journal | journal = Cybium | volume = 30 | issue = 3 | year = 2006 | pages = 262ff. | title = Rhinobatos jimbaranensis and R. penggali, two new shovelnose rays (Batoidea: Rhinobatidae) from eastern Indonesia. | author = Last, White & Fahmi 2006]
** Atlantic guitarfish, "Rhinobatos lentiginosus" Garman, 1880
** Whitesnout guitarfish, "Rhinobatos leucorhynchus" (Günther, 1867)
** Grayspottted guitarfish, "Rhinobatos leucospilus" Norman, 1926
** Smoothback guitarfish, "Rhinobatos lionotus" Norman, 1926
** Smalleyed guitarfish, "Rhinobatos microphthalmus" Teng, 1959
** "Rhinobatos nudidorsalis" Last, Compagno & Nakaya, 2004 [cite journal | journal = Ichthyological Research | doi = 10.1007/s10228-004-0211-0 | volume = 51 | issue = 2 | year = 2004 | pages = 153–158 | title = "Rhinobatos nudidorsalis", a new species of shovelnose ray (Batoidea: Rhinobatidae) from the Mascarene Ridge, central Indian Ocean | author = Peter R. Last, Leonard J.V. Compagno and Kazuhiro Nakaya]
** Widenose guitarfish, "Rhinobatos obtusus" Müller & Henle, 1841
** "Rhinobatos ocellatus" Norman, 1926
** "Rhinobatos penggali" Last, White & Fahmi, 2006 [cite journal | journal = Cybium | volume = 30 | issue = 3 | year = 2006 | pages = 262ff. | title = Rhinobatos jimbaranensis and R. penggali, two new shovelnose rays (Batoidea: Rhinobatidae) from eastern Indonesia. | author = Last, White & Fahmi 2006]
** Chola guitarfish, "Rhinobatos percellens" (Walbaum, 1792)
** Madagascar guitarfish, "Rhinobatos petiti" Chabanaud, 1929
** Pacific guitarfish, "Rhinobatos planiceps" Garman, 1880
** Gorgona guitarfish, "Rhinobatos prahli" Acero P. & Franke, 1995
** Shovelnose guitarfish, "Rhinobatos productus" (Ayres, 1854)
** Spotted guitarfish, "Rhinobatos punctifer" Compagno & Randall, 1987
** Common guitarfish, "Rhinobatos rhinobatos" (Linnaeus, 1758)
** Salalah guitarfish, "Rhinobatos salalah" Randall & Compagno, 1995
** Yellow guitarfish, "Rhinobatos schlegelii" Müller & Henle, 1841
** Spiny guitarfish, "Rhinobatos spinosus" Günther, 1870
** Clubnose guitarfish, "Rhinobatos thouin" (Anonymous, 1798)
** Giant shovelnose ray, "Rhinobatos typus" Anonymous [Bennett] , 1830
** Stripenose guitarfish, "Rhinobatos variegatus" Nair & Lal Mohan, 1973
** Zanzibar guitarfish, "Rhinobatos zanzibarensis" Norman, 1926
* Genus "Rhynchobatus"
** Whitespotted wedgefish, "Rhynchobatus australiae" Whitley, 1939
** Giant guitarfish, "Rhynchobatus djiddensis" (Forsskål, 1775)
** Smooth nose wedgefish, "Rhynchobatus laevis" (Bloch & Schneider, 1801)
** African wedgefish, "Rhynchobatus luebberti" Ehrenbaum, 1915
* Genus "Tarsistes"
** "Tarsistes philippii" Jordan, 1919
* Genus "Trygonorrhina"
** Southern fiddler, "Trygonorrhina fasciata" (Müller & Henle, 1841)
** Magpie fiddler ray, "Trygonorrhina melaleuca" Scott, 1954
* Genus "Zanobatus"
** Striped panray, "Zanobatus schoenleinii" (Müller & Henle, 1841)
* Genus "Zapteryx"
** Lesser guitarfish, "Zapteryx brevirostris" (Müller & Henle, 1841)
** Banded guitarfish, "Zapteryx exasperata" (Jordan & Gilbert, 1880)
** "Zapteryx xyster" Jordan & Evermann, 1896

References

Further reading

* ARKive - [http://www.arkive.org/species/GES/fish/Rhina_ancylostoma/ images and movies of the bowmouth guitarfish "(Rhina ancylostoma)"]