Arctic skate

Arctic skate
Conservation status
Least Concern  (IUCN 3.1) [1]
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Chondrichthyes
Subclass:	Elasmobranchii
Order:	Rajiformes
Family:	Rajidae
Genus:	Amblyraja
Species:	A. hyperborea
Binomial name
Amblyraja hyperborea (Collett, 1879)

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. ^[2]

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. ^[2]

Taxonomy

This species was first described by Robert Collett in 1879 and named Raja hyperborea. ^[3]

Conservation

The Arctic skate is classified as being of "least concern" by the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. ^[1]

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. Kulka, D.W.; Barker, A.S.; Pasolini, P.; Orlov, A.; Walls, R.H.L. (2016). "Amblyraja hyperborea". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species . 2016 e.T63119A68608464. doi: 10.2305/IUCN.UK.2016-1.RLTS.T63119A68608464.en . Retrieved 13 November 2021.
2. "Amblyraja hyperborea summary page". FishBase. Retrieved 2019-01-15.
3. Collett, Robert (1879). "Fiske fra Nordhavs-Expeditionens sidste Togt, Sommeren 1878". Forhandlinger I Videnskabs-selskabet I Christiania. 1878: 1–64 – via Biodiversity Heritage Library.
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   978-1-988514-62-8. OCLC   1042901090.