Guitarfish

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Guitarfishes
Shovelnose guitarfish, Rhinobatos productus
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Chordata Class: Chondrichthyes Subclass: Elasmobranchii Order: Rajiformes Family: Rhinobatidae Müller & Henle, 1837
Genera
Aptychotrema Platyrhina Platyrhinoidis Rhina Rhinobatos Rhynchobatus Tarsistes Trygonorrhina Zanobatus Zapteryx See text for species.

The guitarfish is known for an elongated body with a flattened head and trunk and small raylike wings. They are mainly found in tropical and temperate waters, traveling in large schools. Most adult guitarfishes reach five or six feet in length, though the Indo-Pacific Rhynchobatus djiddensis can weigh 500 pounds and grow to ten feet in length. These fish are bottom feeders, preferring small crustaceans. Their teeth are small and numerous, usually arranged in 65 or 70 rows. Guitarfishes are ovoviviparous, with the young hatching out of the eggs before leaving the mother's body.^[1]

The guitarfishes are a family, Rhinobatidae, of rays.

Notable species include the Shovelnose guitarfish, Rhinobatos productus, and the Bowmouth guitarfish, Rhina ancylostoma.

[edit] Classification

The taxonomy of this group is highly uncertain. Some taxonomists put Rhinobatidae in its own order, Rhinobatiformes; others place it in the order Myliobatiformes with the eagle rays and their relatives.

In some classifications the family is split into three, with the genus Rhina in the family Rhinidae, and the genus Rhynchobatus in the family Rhynochobatidae (or these two genera may be classified together). These families may be raised to the level of orders: Rhiniformes and Rhynchobatiformes, respectively.

This article follows FishBase in including about fifty species in ten genera:^[2]

• Genus Aptychotrema
  • Short-snouted shovelnose ray, Aptychotrema bougainvillii (Müller & Henle, 1841).
  • East Australian shovelnose ray, Aptychotrema rostrata (Shaw, 1794).
  • Western shovelnose ray, Aptychotrema vincentiana (Haacke, 1885).
• Genus Platyrhina
  • Amoy fanray, Platyrhina limboonkengi Tang, 1933.
  • Fanray, Platyrhina sinensis (Bloch & Schneider, 1801).
• Genus Platyrhinoidis
  • Thornback guitarfish, Platyrhinoidis triseriata (Jordan & Gilbert, 1880).
• Genus Rhina
  • Bowmouth guitarfish, Rhina ancylostoma Bloch & Schneider, 1801.
• Genus Rhinobatos
  • White-spotted guitarfish, Rhinobatos albomaculatus Norman, 1930.
  • Annandale's guitarfish, Rhinobatos annandalei Norman, 1926.
  • Lesser sandshark, Rhinobatos annulatus Müller & Henle, 1841.
  • Bluntnose guitarfish, Rhinobatos blochii Müller & Henle, 1841.
  • Blackchin guitarfish, Rhinobatos cemiculus Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, 1817.
  • Taiwan guitarfish, Rhinobatos formosensis Norman, 1926.
  • Speckled guitarfish, Rhinobatos glaucostigma Jordan & Gilbert, 1883.
  • Sharpnose guitarfish, Rhinobatos granulatus Cuvier, 1829.
  • Halavi's guitarfish, Rhinobatos halavi (Forsskål, 1775).
  • Slender guitarfish, Rhinobatos holcorhynchus Norman, 1922.
  • Brazilian guitarfish, Rhinobatos horkelii Müller & Henle, 1841.
  • Angel fish, Rhinobatos hynnicephalus Richardson, 1846.
  • Spineback guitarfish, Rhinobatos irvinei Norman, 1931.
  • Atlantic guitarfish, Rhinobatos lentiginosus Garman, 1880.
  • Whitesnout guitarfish, Rhinobatos leucorhynchus (Günther, 1867).
  • Grayspottted guitarfish, Rhinobatos leucospilus Norman, 1926.
  • Smoothback guitarfish, Rhinobatos lionotus Norman, 1926.
  • Smalleyed guitarfish, Rhinobatos microphthalmus Teng, 1959.
  • Rhinobatos nudidorsalis Last, Compagno & Nakaya, 2004.^[3]
  • Widenose guitarfish, Rhinobatos obtusus Müller & Henle, 1841.
  • Rhinobatos ocellatus Norman, 1926.
  • Chola guitarfish, Rhinobatos percellens (Walbaum, 1792).
  • Madagascar guitarfish, Rhinobatos petiti Chabanaud, 1929.
  • Pacific guitarfish, Rhinobatos planiceps Garman, 1880.
  • Gorgona guitarfish, Rhinobatos prahli Acero P. & Franke, 1995.
  • Shovelnose guitarfish, Rhinobatos productus (Ayres, 1854).
  • Spotted guitarfish, Rhinobatos punctifer Compagno & Randall, 1987.
  • Common guitarfish, Rhinobatos rhinobatos (Linnaeus, 1758).
  • Salalah guitarfish, Rhinobatos salalah Randall & Compagno, 1995.
  • Yellow guitarfish, Rhinobatos schlegelii Müller & Henle, 1841.
  • Spiny guitarfish, Rhinobatos spinosus Günther, 1870.
  • Clubnose guitarfish, Rhinobatos thouin (Anonymous, 1798).
  • Giant shovelnose ray, Rhinobatos typus Anonymous [Bennett], 1830.
  • Stripenose guitarfish, Rhinobatos variegatus Nair & Lal Mohan, 1973.
  • Zanzibar guitarfish, Rhinobatos zanzibarensis Norman, 1926.
• Genus Rhynchobatus
  • Whitespotted wedgefish, Rhynchobatus australiae Whitley, 1939.
  • Giant guitarfish, Rhynchobatus djiddensis (Forsskål, 1775).
  • Smooth nose wedgefish, Rhynchobatus laevis (Bloch & Schneider, 1801).
  • African wedgefish, Rhynchobatus luebberti Ehrenbaum, 1915.
• Genus Tarsistes
  • Tarsistes philippii Jordan, 1919.
• Genus Trygonorrhina
  • Southern fiddler, Trygonorrhina fasciata (Müller & Henle, 1841).
  • Magpie fiddler ray, Trygonorrhina melaleuca Scott, 1954.
• Genus Zanobatus
  • Striped panray, Zanobatus schoenleinii (Müller & Henle, 1841).
• Genus Zapteryx
  • Lesser guitarfish, Zapteryx brevirostris (Müller & Henle, 1841).
  • Banded guitarfish, Zapteryx exasperata (Jordan & Gilbert, 1880).
  • Zapteryx xyster Jordan & Evermann, 1896.

[edit] References

1. ^ John Farrand Jr., The Audubon Society Encyclopedia of Animal Life, 1982
2. ^ "Rhinobatidae". FishBase. Ed. Ranier Froese and Daniel Pauly. August 2005 version. N.p.: FishBase, 2005.
3. ^ Peter R. Last, Leonard J.V. Compagno and Kazuhiro Nakaya (2004). "Rhinobatos nudidorsalis, a new species of shovelnose ray (Batoidea: Rhinobatidae) from the Mascarene Ridge, central Indian Ocean". Ichthyological Research 51 (2): 153–158. DOI:10.1007/s10228-004-0211-0. 

[edit] Further reading

• ARKive - images and movies of the bowmouth guitarfish (Rhina ancylostoma)