''Kimmerobatis'' (meaning "Kimmeridge ray") is an

extinct Extinction is the termination of an organism by the death of its Endling, last member. A taxon may become Functional extinction, functionally extinct before the death of its last member if it loses the capacity to Reproduction, reproduce and ...

genus of spathobatid rays from the

Late Jurassic The Late Jurassic is the third Epoch (geology), epoch of the Jurassic Period, and it spans the geologic time scale, geologic time from 161.5 ± 1.0 to 143.1 ± 0.8 million years ago (Ma), which is preserved in Upper Jurassic stratum, strata.Owen ...

(

Tithonian In the geological timescale, the Tithonian is the latest age (geology), age of the Late Jurassic Epoch and the uppermost stage (stratigraphy), stage of the Upper Jurassic Series. It spans the time between 149.2 ±0.7 annum, Ma and 143.1 ±0.6 (mi ...

age)

Kimmeridge Clay Formation The Kimmeridge Clay is a sedimentary rock, sedimentary deposit of fossiliferous marine clay which is of Late Jurassic to lowermost Cretaceous age and occurs in southern and eastern England and in the North Sea. This rock formation (geology), form ...

of England. The genus contains a single species, ''K. etchesi'', known from two partial, well-preserved specimens.

Discovery and naming

The ''Kimmerobatis'' fossils were discovered in outcrops of the upper

near Kimmeridge Bay in

Dorset Dorset ( ; Archaism, archaically: Dorsetshire , ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by Somerset to the north-west, Wiltshire to the north and the north-east, Hampshire to the east, t ...

, southern England. The

holotype A holotype (Latin: ''holotypus'') is a single physical example (or illustration) of an organism used when the species (or lower-ranked taxon) was formally described. It is either the single such physical example (or illustration) or one of s ...

specimen, MJML K874, consists of the anterior part of an individual missing the end of the tail, preserved in dorsal view. It was found in layers of the ''

Pectinatus ''Pectinatus'' is a genus of Bacillota bacteria classified within the class Negativicutes. Phylogeny The currently accepted taxonomy is based on the List of Prokaryotic names with Standing in Nomenclature (LPSN) and National Center for Biotechn ...

'' Zone. An additional specimen, MJML K1894, was referred as a

paratype In zoology and botany, a paratype is a specimen of an organism that helps define what the scientific name of a species and other taxon actually represents, but it is not the holotype (and in botany is also neither an isotype (biology), isotype ...

, consisting of much of the posterior part of an individual. It was found in the '' Hudlestoni'' Zone. These fossils are holomorphic specimens, meaning they comprise complete, articulated animals. Based on the absence of

clasper In biology, a clasper is a male anatomical structure found in some groups of animals, used in mating. Male cartilaginous fish have claspers formed from the posterior portion of their pelvic fin which serve to channel semen into the female's ...

s in the holotype and their presence in the paratype, these specimens can be identified as female and male individuals, respectively. In 2019, Underwood & Claeson described ''Kimmerobatis etchesi'' as a new genus and species of rays in the extinct family Spathobatidae based on these fossil remains. The generic name, ''Kimmerobatis'', combines a reference to the type locality near

Kimmeridge Kimmeridge () is a small village and civil parish on the Isle of Purbeck, a peninsula on the English Channel coast in Dorset, England. It is situated about south of Wareham and west of Swanage. In 2013 the estimated population of the civil ...

with the

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

βατίς (''batís''), meaning "ray" or "skate". The

specific name Specific name may refer to: * in Database management systems, a system-assigned name that is unique within a particular database In taxonomy, either of these two meanings, each with its own set of rules: * Specific name (botany), the two-part (bino ...

, ''etchesi'', honours Steve Etches for collecting and preparing both ''Kimmerobatis'' specimens.

Description

The general bauplan of ''Kimmerobatis'' is quite similar to

extant Extant or Least-concern species, least concern is the opposite of the word extinct. It may refer to: * Extant hereditary titles * Extant literature, surviving literature, such as ''Beowulf'', the oldest extant manuscript written in English * Exta ...

guitarfish The guitarfish, also referred to as shovelnose rays, 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 tro ...

. In contrast to other Jurassic rays, it is characterized by its pointed, wedge-like rostrum fused to the

pectoral fin Fins are moving appendages protruding from the body of fish that interact with water to generate thrust and help the fish aquatic locomotion, swim. Apart from the tail or caudal fin, fish fins have no direct connection with the vertebral column ...

s. This snout region is not blunt like in '' Belemnobatis'' and it lacks the protruding appendage seen in '' Aellopobatis'' and ''

Spathobatis ''Spathobatis'' (from , 'blade' and 'ray') is an extinct genus of ray from the Jurassic period of Europe. ''Spathobatis'' had a body similar to that of a modern guitarfish, being highly flattened and widened, specializing the creature for a ...

''. Both ''Kimmerobatis'' specimens preserve a phosphatized outline of soft tissue. This includes a dark splotch on the left side of the skull that might represent traces of

retina The retina (; or retinas) is the innermost, photosensitivity, light-sensitive layer of tissue (biology), tissue of the eye of most vertebrates and some Mollusca, molluscs. The optics of the eye create a focus (optics), focused two-dimensional ...

l pigment.

Classification

Underwood & Claeson (2019) tested the relationships of ''Kimmerobatis'' with other batomorphs in a limited

phylogenetic analysis In biology, phylogenetics () is the study of the evolutionary history of life using observable characteristics of organisms (or genes), which is known as phylogenetic inference. It infers the relationship among organisms based on empirical data ...

. They recovered it as the

sister taxon In phylogenetics, a sister group or sister taxon, also called an adelphotaxon, comprises the closest relative(s) of another given unit in an evolutionary tree. Definition The expression is most easily illustrated by a cladogram: Taxon A and ...

to '' Belemnobatis'' and, depending on the methodology, in a clade also containing ''

''. These genera were found as basal batomorphs within the

crown group In phylogenetics, the crown group or crown assemblage is a collection of species composed of the living representatives of the collection, the most recent common ancestor of the collection, and all descendants of the most recent common ancestor ...

(group containing all extant rays). In their 2025 description of ''Apolithabatis'', Türtscher et al. (2025) used more thorough analyses to test the phylogenetic relationships of ''Kimmerobatis'' and other rays from the

Solnhofen Archipelago The Solnhofen Limestone or Solnhofen Plattenkalk is a collective term for multiple Late Jurassic lithographic limestones in southeastern Germany, which is famous for its well-preserved fossil flora and fauna dating to the late Jurassic (Kimmeridg ...

. They found support for the assignment of these taxa to a basal clade of other Jurassic European batomorphs outside of the

, which they named

Apolithabatiformes Spathobatidae is an extinct Family (biology), family of Batomorphi, rays known from the Late Jurassic epoch. Spathobatidae is the only family within the Order (biology), order Apolithabatiformes. All named genera within this family are known from ...

. Their results are displayed in the

cladogram A cladogram (from Greek language, Greek ''clados'' "branch" and ''gramma'' "character") is a diagram used in cladistics to show relations among organisms. A cladogram is not, however, an Phylogenetic tree, evolutionary tree because it does not s ...

below:

References

{{Taxonbar, from1=Q132130792, from2=Q132130794 Spathobatidae Jurassic cartilaginous fish Jurassic fish of Europe Monotypic prehistoric cartilaginous fish genera Fossil taxa described in 2019

Discovery and naming

Description

Classification

See also

References