The sandy ray (''Leucoraja circularis'') or sandy skate is a species of

ray Ray may refer to: Fish * Ray (fish), any cartilaginous fish of the superorder Batoidea * Ray (fish fin anatomy), a bony or horny spine on a fin Science and mathematics * Ray (geometry), half of a line proceeding from an initial point * Ray (g ...

in the family Rajidae.

Description

It maximum length is , typical adults measuring . It has a short snout with a spinulose reddish-brown dorsal surface, a tail only slightly longer than body, and a white underside. A distinctive feature is the 4–6 creamy-coloured spots on each wing.

Habitat

The sandy ray lives in the

demersal The demersal zone is the part of the sea or ocean (or deep lake) consisting of the part of the water column near to (and significantly affected by) the seabed and the benthos. The demersal zone is just above the benthic zone and forms a layer of ...

zone of the offshore waters of Western Europe and the Mediterranean Sea, at depths between and . According to the FAO this species should be considered extinct in Mediterranean Sea, but recent records contradict this view.

Behaviour

The sandy ray lays its

egg An egg is an organic vessel grown by an animal to carry a possibly fertilized egg cell (a zygote) and to incubate from it an embryo within the egg until the embryo has become an animal fetus that can survive on its own, at which point the a ...

s between August and November and feeds on benthic invertebrates and small

bony fish Osteichthyes (), popularly referred to as the bony fish, is a diverse superclass of fish that have skeletons primarily composed of bone tissue. They can be contrasted with the Chondrichthyes, which have skeletons primarily composed of cartilag ...

References

* Leucoraja Fish described in 1838 {{Rajiformes-stub