Species: Caliraja inornata, California Skate
no thorns: eyes & shoulders
Caliraja inornata (Jordan & Gilbert, 1881)
California Skate
Rhomboidal disc of flattened, pointed head, body and pectoral fins, slightly wider than long; snout rigid, sharply pointed, with concave sides at its base, its length 12.3-16.4% of TL; 36-40 rows of teeth on upper jaw; large spiracles behind eyes; pelvic fins deeply notched, with 2 distinct lobes, rear one larger; tail shorter than disc; 2 small dorsal fins at rear of tail, very small tail fin; thorns small, thin, not grooved, with oval bases; no thorns around or just behind eyes, or on shoulders; 0-7 nucal thorns; 1 row of 10-66 thorns along tail with additional lateral rows, extending sometimes onto mid-back; 1 thorn between dorsal fins; top of disc with scattered small denticles.
Olive brown above, white to pale tan below; sometimes dark mottling, occasionally a dark ocellus or spots at base of each pectoral.
Size: 76 cm.
Habitat: soft bottoms, in bays.
Depth: 13-1600 m.
Canada to the Gulf of California.
High Resolution Map Download
- Salinity
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- Marine Only
- Marine
- Inshore/Offshore
-
- Inshore
- Inshore Only
- Water Column Position
-
- Bottom
- Bottom only
- Habitat
-
- Soft bottom only
- Soft bottom (mud/sand/gravel/beach/estuary/mangrove/seagrass)
- Sand & gravel
- Mud
- FishBase Habitat
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- Demersal
- Feeding Group
-
- Data
- Carnivore
- Diet
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- Mobile benthic worms
- Mobile benthic crustacea (shrimps/crabs)
- Bony fishes
- Data
- Octopus/squid/cuttlefish
- Mobile benthic gastropods/bivalves
- Egg Type
-
- Benthic
- No pelagic larva
- No data
- No pelagic phase
- Global Endemism
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- East Pacific endemic
- All species
- TEP non-endemic
- Regional Endemism
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- All species
- Continent only
- California province, primarily
- Continent
- Tropical Eastern Pacific (TEP) non-endemic
- Temperate Eastern Pacific, primarily
- Residency
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- Vagrant
- Climate Zone
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- Northern Subtropical (Cortez Province + Sinaloan Gap)
- North Temperate (Californian Province &/or Northern Gulf of California)
- IUCN Red List
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- Data deficient
- Listed
- CITES
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- Not listed
- Length Max
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- 76
- Depth Range Min
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- 13
- Depth Range Max
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- 1600