Rajidae - Skates

  • Updated
    26/05/22

Skates can be separated from the stingrays by their bi-lobed pelvic fins and lacking a stinging spine. They differ from the stingarees by the aforementioned characters and also by lacking the characteristic leaf-like lobe on the end of the tail.

Rajidae - Skates

1 Fact Sheets in this section

Rajidae images

Melbourne Skate, Spiniraja whitleyi

Melbourne Skate, Spiniraja whitleyi. The Melbourne Skate differs from other Australian species of skates by lacking orbital thorns (spines just in front of the eyes) and having a uniformly spiny lower surface in individuals over about 20 cm in disc width.

Image: Ken Graham
© Ken Graham @ DPI Fisheries