Selachians Extraordinary 



253 



bottom. In the course of evolution, the cylindrical body of the shark 

 became flattened, the pectoral fins became greatly enlarged, and their 

 basal attachments gradually widened until they became united to the 

 sides of the head. At last, the disk-like body of the skates and the rays 

 was evolved. 



This incredibly long evolutionary process is telescoped during the 

 embryonic development of both the skate and the ray. The embryo 

 goes through a number of shark-like stages until it concludes its gesta- 

 tion as a disk-shaped form. A4alformed skates' development is arrested 

 during their embryonic period, and they wind up looking like some- 

 thing in between a shark and a skate . . . 



"Skates are described as mating ventral side to ventral side," Bigelow 

 and Schroeder write,* "and pairs so engaged are sometimes hauled up 

 on hook and line. It has been observed that the males and females of one 

 of the larger European species (Raja batis) hold their disks flat while 

 mating; but the female of the smaller R. asterias curves her pectorals 

 ventrally, while the male, rolling the outer corners of his pectorals out 

 of the way ventrally, then bends the fins inward around her back, which 

 brings his alar spines (claw-like retractile spines on the dorsal side of 

 the outer part of each pectoral) in position to fasten to her. At least for 

 some of the larger species it is reported that only one clasper is introduced 

 into the cloaca of the female at a time, but for other species it is said 

 that both are introduced simultaneously." 



■* Memoir Sears Foundation for Marine Research, No. 1, Fishes of the Western 

 North Atlantic, Part Two, Sawfishes, Guitarfishes, Skates and Rays (New Haven, 

 1953), p. 141. 



Jenny Haniver is the seaman's name for a fantastic "monster" made by cutting and 

 twisting dried skates into grotesque shapes. This is an old, old Jenny, which appeared 

 in Gerner's Icones Animalium, published in 1560. The skate's head has been bent 

 forward and its "wings" trimmed. From an old print 



