The thorny skate (''Amblyraja radiata'') 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. This bottom-living skate lives in the North and south-eastern Atlantic Ocean in depths ranging from and water temperatures from .

Species description

The thorny skate reaches up to in

total length Fish measurement is the measuring of individual fish and various parts of their anatomies, for data used in many areas of ichthyology, including taxonomy and fishery biology. Overall length Standard length (SL) is the length of a fish measured f ...

and in weight. Its underside is smooth, but the upper side, as the name suggests, is very rough with many small thorns all over and 13–17 larger ones in line from the back of the head to end of the tail. The top side is brown with possibly black spots and the underside is white. It has a hard, roughly triangular snout and a tail, which is shorter than its body. It eats

crustaceans Crustaceans (from Latin meaning: "those with shells" or "crusted ones") are invertebrate animals that constitute one group of Arthropod, arthropods that are traditionally a part of the subphylum Crustacea (), a large, diverse group of mainly aquat ...

, small fishes, and worms. It produces egg capsules, which are 3.4-8.9 cm long and 2.3-6.8 cm wide, which hatch outside the body.

Conservation status

Thorny skate are taken as bycatch in some fisheries. It is a U.S.

National Marine Fisheries Service The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), informally known as NOAA Fisheries, is a United States federal agency within the U.S. Department of Commerce's National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) that is responsible for the ste ...

br>species of concern
which are those species about which the U.S.

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA ) is an American scientific and regulatory agency charged with Weather forecasting, forecasting weather, monitoring oceanic and atmospheric conditions, Hydrography, charting the seas, ...

National Marine Fisheries Service
has some concerns regarding status and threats, but for which insufficient information is available to indicate a need to list the species under the U.S
Endangered Species Act

References

Kulka, D.W., Ellis, J., Anderson, B., Cotton, C.F., Derrick, D., Pacoureau, N. & Dulvy, N.K. 2020. Amblyraja radiata. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2020: e.T161542A124503504. https://dx.doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.UK.2020-3.RLTS.T161542A124503504.en. Accessed on 20 March 2022.

External links

Species Description of ''Amblyraja radiata'' at www.shark-references.com
* Rajidae Fish described in 1808 {{Rajiformes-stub