The Arctic skate (''Amblyraja hyperborea'') is a species of

fish A fish (: fish or fishes) is an aquatic animal, aquatic, Anamniotes, anamniotic, gill-bearing vertebrate animal with swimming fish fin, fins and craniate, a hard skull, but lacking limb (anatomy), limbs with digit (anatomy), digits. Fish can ...

in the family Rajidae. It lives near the

seabed The seabed (also known as the seafloor, sea floor, ocean floor, and ocean bottom) is the bottom of the ocean. All floors of the ocean are known as seabeds. The structure of the seabed of the global ocean is governed by plate tectonics. Most of ...

between 140 and 2,500 m deep in the

Arctic Ocean The Arctic Ocean is the smallest and shallowest of the world's five oceanic divisions. It spans an area of approximately and is the coldest of the world's oceans. The International Hydrographic Organization (IHO) recognizes it as an ocean, ...

and waters around Canada and northern and north-western Europe, in the northern Pacific Ocean, and in waters surrounding Antarctica and New Zealand. The Arctic skate is about 1 m long and is gray-brown with large dark spots. Its underside is white with dark patterns. It has thorns in line from back to near the end of its tail. It is

oviparous Oviparous animals are animals that reproduce by depositing fertilized zygotes outside the body (i.e., by laying or spawning) in metabolically independent incubation organs known as eggs, which nurture the embryo into moving offsprings kno ...

; its

eggs An egg is an organic vessel in which an embryo begins to develop. Egg, EGG or eggs may also refer to: Biology * Egg cell, the female reproductive cell (gamete) in oogamous organisms Food * Eggs as food Places * Egg, Austria * Egg, Switzerland ...

are capsules with hard horns on each corner. It eats all sorts of small animals at the bottom of the sea.

Taxonomy

This species was first described by

Robert Collett Robert Collett (2 December 1842 – 27 January 1913) was a Norway, Norwegian zoologist. Collett was director and curator of the Natural History Museum at the University of Oslo, Zoological Museum at University of Oslo. Robert Collett was born at ...

in 1879 and named ''Raja hyperborea.''

Conservation

The Arctic skate is classified as being of "least concern" by the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. In New Zealand, the

Department of Conservation Department may refer to: * Departmentalization, division of a larger organization into parts with specific responsibility Government and military *Department (administrative division), a geographical and administrative division within a country, ...

has classified the Arctic skate as "Not Threatened" under the

New Zealand Threat Classification System The New Zealand Threat Classification System is used by the Department of Conservation to assess conservation priorities of species in New Zealand. The system was developed because the IUCN Red List, a similar conservation status system, had s ...

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q238519 Amblyraja Fish described in 1879 Marine fish of New Zealand Taxa named by Robert Collett