Bigelow's ray (''Rajella bigelowi''), also called the chocolate skate or Bigelow's skate, is a species of

skate Skate or Skates may refer to: Fish *Skate (fish), several genera of fish belonging to the family Rajidae * Pygmy skates, several genera of fish belonging to the family Gurgesiellidae * Smooth skates or leg skates, several genera of fish belongin ...

in the family Rajidae. It is named in honour of the oceanographer

Henry Bryant Bigelow Henry Bryant Bigelow (October 3, 1879 – December 11, 1967) was an American oceanographer and marine biologist. He is the grandson of Henry Bryant (naturalist), Henry Bryant who was an American physician and natural history, naturalist. Afte ...

Distribution

Bigelow's ray lives on continental slopes and deepwater rises around the edges of the

Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe ...

. It has been recorded at , mostly below .

Description

Like all rays, Bigelow's ray has a flattened body with broad, wing-like

pectoral fin Fins are distinctive anatomical features composed of bony spines or rays protruding from the body of a fish. They are covered with skin and joined together either in a webbed fashion, as seen in most bony fish, or similar to a flipper, as ...

s. The body is sub-rhomboid. It is dark on the dorsal surface, with the outer edges of the disc and pelvic fins shading to a slightly darker colour. Its maximum length is .

Behaviour

Bigelow's ray feeds on small benthic

crustaceans Crustaceans (Crustacea, ) form a large, diverse arthropod taxon which includes such animals as decapods, seed shrimp, branchiopods, fish lice, krill, remipedes, isopods, barnacles, copepods, amphipods and mantis shrimp. The crustacean group ...

Life cycle

Bigelow's ray is

oviparous Oviparous animals are animals that lay their eggs, with little or no other embryonic development within the mother. This is the reproductive method of most fish, amphibians, most reptiles, and all pterosaurs, dinosaurs (including birds), and ...

. The

eggs Humans and human ancestors have scavenged and eaten animal eggs for millions of years. Humans in Southeast Asia had domesticated chickens and harvested their eggs for food by 1,500 BCE. The most widely consumed eggs are those of fowl, especial ...

are oblong capsules with stiff pointed horns at the corners; they are deposited in sandy or muddy flats. It is parasitised by '' Ditrachybothridium macrocephalum'' (

tapeworms Cestoda is a class of parasitic worms in the flatworm phylum (Platyhelminthes). Most of the species—and the best-known—are those in the subclass Eucestoda; they are ribbon-like worms as adults, known as tapeworms. Their bodies consist of man ...

of the order

Diphyllidea Diphyllidea is a monotypic taxon, monotypic Order (biology), order of Cestoda (tapeworms). Members of this order are gut Parasitism, parasites of elasmobranch fishes including rays and sharks. References

Cestoda Platyhelminthes orders { ...

References

External links