New Data on Rare Deepwater North Atlantic Skate Bathyraja pallida (Forster, 1967) (Arhynchobatidae, Rajiformes)1

摘要

The most comprehensive description of variations of morphometric and meristic characters and coloration of rare deepwater pale ray Bathyraja pallida (Forster, 1967) from the North Atlantic based on all available materials is given. For the first timemorphometries are presented as percent of disc width that might be used in taxonomic studies of specimens with damaged snout and tail. Relationships between total length and disc width and the rest morphometries have linear character except for clasper length and snout angle. Comparison of external morphological characters of juveniles and adults revealed some notable differences between them. There were almost no considerable distinctions in external morphological characters between skates from the northeastern Atlantic and Mid-Atlantic ridge. It is shown that coloration of pale ray has changed during life span. Juveniles overall have darker coloration as compared to adults. At the same time, both juveniles and mature skates keep common species-specific features of coloration of dorsal and ventral surfaces.