The common skate is a large, diamond-shaped ray found on sandy and muddy seabeds at depths of 50–500 m across the northeast Atlantic. Growing to around 2.8 m, it is distinguished by a broad, flattened body and a long, whip-like tail armed with venomous spines. Once abundant, it is now critically endangered throughout much of its range and rarely encountered by recreational divers; populations have collapsed due to bottom trawling and slow reproductive rates typical of deep-sea rays.
Taxonomy
- Kingdom
- Animalia
- Phylum
- Chordata
- Class
- Elasmobranchii
- Order
- Rajiformes
- Family
- Rajidae
- Genus
- Dipturus