Genus: Pseudobatos, Guitarfishes

PSEUDOBATOS

GUITARFISHES

Body and head shark-like; a large, flattened, triangular head that incorporates the fused pectoral fins, and which tapers to a pointed or narrowly rounded snout tip; snout long, pointed, with 2 central cartilaginous ridges; nostrils longer than distance between them, rear aperture narrow, very elongate, slightly oblique to front aperture; front nasal flaps bilobed, not fused to form a curtain, short based (<1/2 nostril length), inserted on snout beside nostril edge, those insertions widely separated; elongate body; eyes and spiracles on upper surface; spiracles with 1-2 variably developed folds; mouth, large nostrils and gill slits on the underside; mouth small, transverse, with lower jaw often convex in center; jaw teeth in low pavement-like bands; remainder of the body and tail more or less shark-like, with a pair of similar-sized dorsal fins on the top of the large, thick tail; 1 row of thorns along back; 1st dorsal fin behind pelvics; pelvic fins with a single, moderately expanded lobe; well developed tail fin that lacks a lower lobe.

A neotropical genus, with 8 species,  two west Atlantic species in our region.