Raja africana

Raja africana, commonly known as the African skate, is a species of ray in the family Rajidae.[1] It is found at depths of 50–400 m (160–1,310 ft) in the eastern Atlantic Ocean off Mauritania and Tunisia.[1]

Raja africana
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Chondrichthyes
Order: Rajiformes
Family: Rajidae
Genus: Raja
Species:
R. africana
Binomial name
Raja africana
Capapé, 1977

This species was described in 1977, but the currently used scientific name is a homonym, preoccupied by Raja africana Bloch & Schneider, 1801, which is a synonym of Urogymnus asperrimus. Consequently, a replacement scientific name is needed for the African skate.[1][2][3] Furthermore, the validity of the African skate has been questioned, with some suggesting that its type specimen may be an aberrant R. miraletus or R. straeleni.[2][3]

References

  1. Froese, Rainer and Pauly, Daniel, eds. (2017). "Raja africana" in FishBase. July 2017 version.
  2. Weigman, S. (2016). "Annotated checklist of the living sharks, batoids and chimaeras (Chondrichthyes) of the world, with a focus on biogeographical diversity". Journal of Fish Biology. 88 (3): 837–1037. doi:10.1111/jfb.12874. PMID 26860638.
  3. Last, P.R.; Weigman, S.; Yang, L. (2016). "Changes to the nomenclature of the skates (Chondrichthyes: Rajiformes)". In Last, P.R.; Yearsley, G.R. (eds.). Rays of the World: Supplementary Information. CSIRO Special Publication. pp. 11–34. ISBN 9781486308019.


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