The broadnose wedgefish (''Rhynchobatus springeri'') is a species of

fish Fish are aquatic, craniate, gill-bearing animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish as well as various extinct related groups. Approximately 95% of li ...

in the

Rhinidae Wedgefishes are rays of the family Rhinidae, comprising eleven species in three genera. Classified in the order Rhinopristiformes along with guitarfishes and sawfishes, they have also been known as giant guitarfishes or sharkfin guitarfishes. T ...

family. It is found in coastal and estuarine habitats in southeast Asia, where documented from

Java Java (; id, Jawa, ; jv, ꦗꦮ; su, ) is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea to the north. With a population of 151.6 million people, Java is the world's List ...

Borneo Borneo (; id, Kalimantan) is the third-largest island in the world and the largest in Asia. At the geographic centre of Maritime Southeast Asia, in relation to major Indonesian islands, it is located north of Java, west of Sulawesi, and eas ...

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, borde ...

, the

Philippines The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no), * bik, Republika kan Filipinas * ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas * cbk, República de Filipinas * hil, Republ ...

and

Thailand Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 million. The country is bo ...

.Compagno, L.J.V. and P.R. Last (2010). ''A new species of wedgefish, Rhynchobatus springeri (Rhynchobatoidei, Rhynchobatidae), from the Western Pacific.'' 77-88 pp. in: Last, P.R., White, W.T. & Pogonoski, J.J., eds.: Descriptions of new sharks and rays from Borneo. CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research Paper no. 32. It is threatened by

habitat loss Habitat destruction (also termed habitat loss and habitat reduction) is the process by which a natural habitat becomes incapable of supporting its native species. The organisms that previously inhabited the site are displaced or dead, thereby ...

and

overfishing Overfishing is the removal of a species of fish (i.e. fishing) from a body of water at a rate greater than that the species can replenish its population naturally (i.e. the overexploitation of the fishery's existing fish stock), resulting in th ...

. This is a medium-sized species of ''

Rhynchobatus ''Rhynchobatus'' is a group of rays commonly known as wedgefishes in the family Rhinidae. They are found in the tropical and subtropical Indo-Pacific with a single species (''R. luebberti'') in the eastern Atlantic. All species in this genus are ...

'', which reaches a maximum length of about .

Etymology

The ray is named in honor of

Stewart Springer Stewart Springer (5 June 190623 August 1991) was an American ichthyologist and herpetologist. He was a world-renowned expert on shark behavior, classification (taxonomy), and population distribution. More than 35 species of sharks, skates, rays, ...

(5 June 1906 – 23 August 1991), because of his contributions to the systematics of ''Rhynchobatus''.

References

broadnose wedgefish Marine fauna of Southeast Asia Taxa named by Leonard Compagno Taxa named by Peter R. Last Fish described in 2010 Taxonomy articles created by Polbot {{Rajiformes-stub