Rhynchobatus
Genus of cartilaginous fishes
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Rhynchobatus (from Ancient Greek ῥύγχος (rhúnkos), meaning "snout", and βάτος (bátos), meaning "ray") is a genus of rays commonly known as wedgefishes in the family Rhinidae. They are found in the tropical and subtropical Indo-Pacific with a single species (R. luebberti) in the eastern Atlantic. All species in this genus (excluding R. palpebratus) are assessed as Critically Endangered by IUCN.
| Rhynchobatus Temporal range: | |
|---|---|
| |
| Giant guitarfish (R. djiddensis) | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Chondrichthyes |
| Subclass: | Elasmobranchii |
| Order: | Rhinopristiformes |
| Family: | Rhinidae |
| Genus: | Rhynchobatus J. P. Müller & Henle, 1837 |
| Type species | |
| Rhinobatus laevis Bloch & J. G. Schneider, 1801 | |
The species are superficially similar and have often been confused. The various species can generally be separated by a combination of snout shape, vertebral count and exact colour (distribution of white spots, and presence/absence of a black spot at the base of the pectoral fin).[2] The largest species can reach about 3 m (10 ft) and are among the largest species of Rhinopristiformes, but the smallest reach less than one-third of that size.[3]
Species
There are currently seven recognized species in this genus:[4] In the past all the Indo-Pacific species have been confused with R. djiddensis, which as presently defined is restricted to the western Indian Ocean.[2]
- Rhynchobatus australiae Whitley, 1939 (white-spotted wedgefish)
- Rhynchobatus djiddensis (Forsskål, 1775) (giant guitarfish)
- Rhynchobatus cooki Last, Kyne & Compagno, 2016 (roughnose wedgefish)[3]
- Rhynchobatus immaculatus Last, H. C. Ho & R. R. Chen, 2013 (Taiwanese wedgefish)[2]
- Rhynchobatus laevis (Bloch & J. G. Schneider, 1801) (smoothnose wedgefish)
- Rhynchobatus luebberti Ehrenbaum, 1915 (African wedgefish)
- Rhynchobatus mononoke Koeda, Itou, Yamada & Motomura, 2020 (Japanese wedgefish)[5]
- Rhynchobatus palpebratus Compagno & Last, 2008 (eyebrow wedgefish)
- Rhynchobatus springeri Compagno & Last, 2010 (broadnose wedgefish)
