Notoraja hirticauda, a new species of skate (Chondrichthyes: Rajoidei) from the south-eastern Indian Ocean

Abstract

Last P.R. and McEachran J.D. 2006. Notoraja hirticauda, a new species of skate (Chondrichthyes: Rajoidei) from the southeastern Indian Ocean. Memoirs of Museum Victoria 63(1): 65-75. A new skate, Notoraja hirticauda sp. nov., is described from off central Western Australia in the southeastern Indian Ocean. It is distinguished from its congeners in some proportional measurements, the distributions of dermal denticles and bristle-like thorns, the absence of oronasal pits, and several skeletal structures. The new species has a relatively long snout, multiple irregular rows of short thorns on the dorsal and lateral surfaces of the tail, and dermal denticles on the ventral surface of the tail. Its rostral cartilage, which is longer than the nasobasal length, has appendices that are subtriangular in cross-section posteriorly and abut the rostral shaft. Within Notoraja, N. hirticauda most closely resembles N. subtilispinosa Stehmann from the Philippines and Indonesia.