Arctic skate

The Arctic skate (Amblyraja hyperborea) is a species of fish in the family Rajidae. It lives near the seabed between 140 and 2,500 m deep in the Arctic Ocean and waters around Canada and northern and north-western Europe, in the northern Pacific Ocean, and in waters surrounding Antarctica and New Zealand.[1]

Arctic skate
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Chondrichthyes
Order: Rajiformes
Family: Rajidae
Genus: Amblyraja
Species:
A. hyperborea
Binomial name
Amblyraja hyperborea
(Collett, 1879)

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; its eggs are capsules with hard horns on each corner. It eats all sorts of small animals at the bottom of the sea.[1]

Taxonomy

This species was first described by Robert Collett in 1879 and named Raja hyperborea.[2]

Conservation

The Arctic skate is classified as being of "least concern" by the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.[3]

In New Zealand, the Department of Conservation has classified the Arctic skate as "Not Threatened" under the New Zealand Threat Classification System.[4]

References
  1. "Amblyraja hyperborea summary page". FishBase. Retrieved 2019-01-15.
  2. Collett, Robert (1879). "Fiske fra Nordhavs-Expeditionens sidste Togt, Sommeren 1878". Forhandlinger i Videnskabs-selskabet i Christiania. 1878: 1–64 – via Biodiversity Heritage Library.
  3. Kulka, D.W.; Barker, A.S.; Pasolini, P.; Orlov, A.; Walls, R.H.L. (15 August 2015). "Amblyraja hyperborea". The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2016. doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2016-1.RLTS.T63119A68608464. Retrieved 15 January 2019.
  4. Duffy, Clinton A. J.; Francis, Malcolm; Dunn, M. R.; Finucci, Brit; Ford, Richard; Hitchmough, Rod; Rolfe, Jeremy (2016). Conservation status of New Zealand chondrichthyans (chimaeras, sharks and rays), 2016 (PDF). Wellington, New Zealand: Department of Conservation. p. 8. ISBN 9781988514628. OCLC 1042901090.
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