Selachians Extraordinary 



259 



External features of the Barndoor skate ( Raja laevis ) : ( A ) ventral view of male pelvic 

 region; (B) side view of claspers; (C) mouth and teeth. 



Courtesy, The Sears Foundation for Marine Research from 

 Fishes of the Western North Atlantic by Henry B. Bigelow and William C. Schroeder, 1953 



skate's egg case is black, about 2 inches long (not including horns) and 

 about 1 to 1 ^ inches wide. 



Starry Skate 

 (Raja stellulata Jordan and Gilbert, 1880) 

 (Also Known as Prickly Skate) 

 A beautifully ornamented skate, whose upper side is a constellation 

 of blacks spots, the Starry skate is found from northwest Alaska to south- 

 ern California in fairly deep water. It grows to about 2 V2 feet in length. 



Abyssal Skate 

 {Raja bathyphila Holt and Byrne, 1908) 



The Abyssal skate dwells in the depths, and is rarely caught. The 

 few specimens that have been brought to the surface were hauled from 

 depths of a mile or more in the North Atlantic. It is known to grow 

 to 18 inches in length. 



A similar creature of the depths, the Deep-Sea skate of the Pacific 

 (Raja abyssicola Gilbert, 1895), is known from a single specimen pulled 

 from a depth of about 9,525 feet— some 1,000 feet less than 2 miles— in 

 the Pacific, west of Moresby Island, British Columbia. It was a male 4^2 

 feet long. 



