Family: ANACANTHOBATIDAE, Leg Skate, Legskates, Limbed Skates

FAMILY ANACANTHOBATIDAE

LIMBED SKATES, LEGSKATES

Disc broad, flattened, rounded to heart-shaped, not subdivided by a notch at eyes, with free rear tips ending behind pelvic-fin origin; snout long (>15% TL), sharply angular, its tip usually with a filament or laterally expanded flap, with a robust and stiff or slender and flexible snout cartilage; pectoral fins large, originate before mouth, may reach snout tip, attached to sides of head; front nasal flaps elongate, expanded at rear, reaching mouth, but separate centrally; teeth small broad ovals, with or without cusps, similar in shape and in 18 to 46 rows on each jaw; pelvic fins long, rounded to angular, subdivided, with narrow, leg-like front lobes that have a distinct foot at the tip, those completely separate from broad rear lobes; tail with abruptly narrow base, narrow to very slender, shorter than to much longer than disc, without dorsal fins; tail fin small, ~ symmetrical to without lower lobe; top surface of disc either naked, with a few minute denticles or hard scales; large thorns on disc and tail absent or present.

All three oceans; 5 genera with 15 species, 3 species in two genera in the GC.

PREPARED BY D ROSS ROBERTSON, AFTER LAST et al (2016)