Misplaced Pages

False shark ray

Article snapshot taken from Wikipedia with creative commons attribution-sharealike license. Give it a read and then ask your questions in the chat. We can research this topic together.
Species of cartilaginous fish

False shark ray
Conservation status

Critically Endangered  (IUCN 3.1)
CITES Appendix II (CITES)
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Chondrichthyes
Subclass: Elasmobranchii
Order: Rhinopristiformes
Family: Rhinidae
Genus: Rhynchorhina
Séret & Naylor, 2016
Species: R. mauritaniensis
Binomial name
Rhynchorhina mauritaniensis
Séret & Naylor, 2016

The false shark ray (Rhynchorhina mauritaniensis) is a species of fish in the Rhinidae family and the only species in the genus Rhynchorhina. This rare ray is only known from shallow coastal Atlantic waters in Banc d’Arguin, Mauritania.

The upperparts of the false shark ray are greyish or greenish-brown and densely covered in white spots. The largest known reliably measured specimen was 2.24 m (7.3 ft) long, but individuals about 2.75 m (9 ft) have been seen. Overall it resembles the African wedgefish (Rhynchobatus luebberti) found in the same region, but it has a blunt rounded snout somewhat like the shark ray or bowmouth guitarfish (Rhina ancylostoma) of the Indo-Pacific. The genus name Rhynchorhina (Rhyncho+rhina) is a reference to this "mix" of features.

Although long known by the local Imraguen people, the first record confirmed by scientists was in 1998 and it only received its species description in 2016.

Very little is known about the behavior of the false shark ray, but a 2-metre (6.6 ft) female caught in February had ripe ovocytes and shrimp in the stomach, while another had moray eels in the stomach.

References

  1. "Appendices | CITES". cites.org. Retrieved 2022-01-14.
  2. ^ Séret, B.; G. Naylor (2016). "Rhynchorhina mauritaniensis, a new genus and species of wedgefish from the eastern central Atlantic (Elasmobranchii: Batoidea: Rhinidae)". Zootaxa. 4138 (2): 291–308. doi:10.11646/zootaxa.4138.2.4. PMID 27470765.
  3. ^ Last; White; de Carvalho; Séret; Stehmann; Naylor, eds. (2016). Rays of the World. CSIRO. p. 76. ISBN 9780643109148.
  4. Pollerspöck, J.; N. Straube. "Rhynchorhina mauritaniensis Séret & Naylor, 2016". Shark References. Retrieved 6 July 2017.
Taxon identifiers
Rhynchorhina mauritaniensis
Rhynchorhina


Stub icon

This batoid-related article is a stub. You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it.

Categories: