3 I o Memoir Sears Foundation for Marine Research 



Pelvics deeply concave outwardly in subtriangular contour, weakly scalloped around 

 the indentation; anterior margin about 65—70 "/o as long as distance from pelvic origins 

 to rear tips of pelvics; anterior lobe small and fleshy with well rounded tip and three 

 radials besides the first stout one; posterior lobe rather strongly convex outwardly, 

 its rear corners abruptly rounded and reaching back a little less than Vs of distance 

 from level of axils of pelvics toward first dorsal. Claspers of mature males not seen. 



Rostral cartilage triangular, extending about half the distance from front of cranium 

 toward tip of snout. Anterior rays of pectorals reaching close to tip of snout, not far 

 apart there. 



Color. Upper surface light brown, the disc either plain or indistinctly marked 

 with a few whitish blotches, larger and smaller, arranged symmetrically on either side 

 of median line ; anterior parts of dorsals and tip of caudal membrane brownish ; some 

 specimens with lower surface either plain whitish (including one of the larger speci- 

 mens) or pale brownish (after many years in alcohol), but others with dark brown 

 blotches developing inward from each nostril; central part of disc and anterior parts 

 of pelvics of some also becoming more or less washed or blotched with sooty brown. 



Remarks. The only Albatross specimen that is still in adequate condition differs 

 from the type specimen (taken off Jacksonville, Florida) in having one large thorn 

 close in front of each orbit, fewer small thorns along the inner margins of the orbits, 

 the mid-dorsal thorns somewhat more conspicous, and the rostral cartilage perhaps 

 a little longer and narrower relatively. But these divergences do not seem wider than 

 can be explained on the basis of individual or local variation, to judge from conditions 

 among better known Skates. 



Size. The size at maturity is not known. 



Developmental Stages. The egg cases have not been seen. 



Habits. Seemingly this is a deep-water species, the few specimens taken thus far 

 having been trawled at 250, 258, 373 and 727 fathoms. 



Range. Known only from off middle and northern Florida, off North Carolina, 

 and off Delaware Bay, a total of seven specimens (see Study Material, p. 306). 



Reference : 



Breviraja spinosa Bigelow and Schroeder, Bull. Mus. comp. Zool. Harv., 103 (7), 1950: 400 (descr., ill., off 

 Jacksonville, Florida). 



Breviraja yucatanensis Bigelow and Schroeder 1950 

 Figure 72 



Study Material. Juvenile male (type), 2 1 5 mm long, from notheastern slope of 

 Yucatan, in 231 fathoms, in U. S. National Museum. 



Distinctive Characters. This newly discovered species is marked off from all other 

 known members of its genus in the western Atlantic, except for B. spinosa., by the 

 presence of two or more irregular rows of thorns along the median belt of its disc 

 rearward from the scapular region. It differs from B. spinosa in having less conspicuous 



