''Rhynchobatus australiae'', also called the white-spotted guitarfish, white-spotted wedgefish or bottlenose wedgefish, 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 ...

in the Rhinidae family. It is found from shallow waters to a depth of at least in the Indo-Pacific, ranging from the East African coast and the

Red Sea The Red Sea ( ar, البحر الأحمر - بحر القلزم, translit=Modern: al-Baḥr al-ʾAḥmar, Medieval: Baḥr al-Qulzum; or ; Coptic: ⲫⲓⲟⲙ ⲛ̀ϩⲁϩ ''Phiom Enhah'' or ⲫⲓⲟⲙ ⲛ̀ϣⲁⲣⲓ ''Phiom ǹšari''; ...

, to

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the nort ...

, the Philippines and Australia. It is part of a

species complex In biology, a species complex is a group of closely related organisms that are so similar in appearance and other features that the boundaries between them are often unclear. The taxa in the complex may be able to hybridize readily with each oth ...

that also includes the giant guitarfish, the broadnose wedgefish and possibly the smoothnose wedgefish. ''R. australiae'' reaches about in length. Juveniles and young adults are greyish or brownish above with a sparse covering of white spots and a black spot above each

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 ...

. There are three white spots above each black spot. Large adults are considerably darker, sometimes appearing almost black above, and the spots seen is younger individuals are typically not easily visible. Its tail fin has distinct upper and lower lobes, unlike the fiddler and shovelnose rays, where the lower lobe is reduced. Its snout is acutely pointed, merging into the flat triangular pectoral fins. Gills are on the underside of the head. The first (anterior) dorsal fin is in line with the pelvic fins, and there is a row of thorns along the dorsal midline.

References

white-spotted guitarfish Taxa named by Gilbert Percy Whitley white-spotted guitarfish Taxonomy articles created by Polbot {{Rajiformes-stub