Hexatrygonidae, a new family of stingrays (Myliobatiformes: Batoidea) from South Africa, with comments on the classification of Batoid fishes

Heemstra, Phillip C; Smith, Margaret Mary

Title: Hexatrygonidae, a new family of stingrays (Myliobatiformes: Batoidea) from South Africa, with comments on the classification of Batoid fishes
Title: Ichthyological Bulletin of the J.L.B. Smith Institute of Ichthyology; No. 43
Creator: Heemstra, Phillip C
Creator: Smith, Margaret Mary
Subject: Hexatrygonidae
Subject: Hexatrygon bickelli
Subject: Stingrays -- South Africa -- Classification
Subject: Rajiformes -- South Africa -- Classification
Date Issued: 1980
Date: 1980
Type: Text
Identifier: vital:14996
Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1019701
Identifier: ISBN 0-86810-038-2
Identifier: Ichthyological Bulletin of the J.L.B. Smith Institute of Ichthyology; No. 43
Description: A new species of stingray, Hexatrygon bickelli Heemstra and Smith, is described from a specimen washed up on a beach at Port Elizabeth on the south coast of South Africa. This new species differs from all other batoid fishes in having six gill arches and a peculiar hypertrophied snout that appears to be a well-developed electroreceptive organ, and in the configuration of its spiracles. Other characters that separate H. bickelli from previously known rays (myliobatiforms) are its small simple brain (other rays have a very large complex brain) and the absence of supraorbital crests on the cranium. In addition, all myliobatiforms are neritic (with none having been recorded below 200 m), and H. bickelli is.presumed to live in moderately deep water (400 to 1000 m). The classification of batoid fishes is reviewed, and Hexatrygon is placed in a new family and suborder of the Myliobatiformes.
Description: Rhodes University Libraries (Digitisation)
Format: [ii], 1-17; ill; 28 cm
Format: pdf
Format: Online version of original print version of the Ichthyological Bulletin of the J.L.B. Smith Institute of Ichthyology; No. 43
Publisher: J.L.B. Smith Institute of Ichthyology, Rhodes University
Language: English
Relation: Ichthyological bulletin (Rhodes University. Department of Ichthyology)
Rights: Rhodes University, Grahamstown, South Africa
Rights: CC BY-NC-SA : Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike

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