Glaucostegus, also known as giant guitarfishes, is a genus of large Indo-Pacific rays, with a single species, Glaucostegus cemiculus, in the East Atlantic, and Mediterranean.[1] They were formerly classified in the family Rhinobatidae but are now recognized as a distinct family, Glaucostegidae.[2]
Glaucostegus | |
---|---|
Giant guitarfish (G. typus) | |
Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Chondrichthyes |
Subclass: | Elasmobranchii |
Order: | Rhinopristiformes |
Family: | Glaucostegidae Last, Séret & Naylor, 2016 |
Genus: | Glaucostegus Bonaparte, 1846 |
Their upperparts are uniform pale yellowish, brownish or greyish, and the nose is pale. Most are large, reaching 1.7–3 m (5.6–9.8 ft) in length depending on the exact species involved, except for the small G. obtusus that is less than 1 m (3.3 ft).[1]
Species
editThere are ten recognized species, all of which are classified as critically endangered:[2][3]
- Glaucostegus cemiculus (Geoffroy St. Hilaire, 1817) (Blackchin guitarfish)
- Glaucostegus granulatus (Cuvier, 1829) (Sharpnose guitarfish)
- Glaucostegus halavi (Fabricius 1775) (Halavi guitarfish)
- Glaucostegus microphthalmus (H.-T.Teng, 1959) (Smalleyed guitarfish)
- Glaucostegus obtusus (Müller & Henle, 1841) (Widenose guitarfish)
- Glaucostegus petiti (Chabanaud, 1929) (Madagascar guitarfish)
- Glaucostegus spinosus (Günther, 1870) (Spiny guitarfish)
- Glaucostegus thouin (Anonymous [Lacépède], 1798) (Clubnose guitarfish/Thouin ray)
- Glaucostegus typus (Anonymous [E. T. Bennett], 1830) (Giant guitarfish)
- Glaucostegus younholeei (Habib & Islam, 2021) (Bangladeshi guitarfish)
References
edit- ^ a b Last; White; de Carvalho; Séret; Stehmann; Naylor, eds. (2016). Rays of the World. CSIRO. pp. 110–116. ISBN 9780643109148.
- ^ a b Last, P.R.; Séret, B.; Naylor, G.J.P. (2016). "A new species of guitarfish, Rhinobatos borneensis sp. nov. with a redefinition of the family-level classification in the order Rhinopristiformes (Chondrichthyes: Batoidea)". Zootaxa. 4117 (4): 451–475. doi:10.11646/zootaxa.4117.4.1. PMID 27395187.
- ^ Froese, Rainer; Pauly, Daniel (eds.). "Species in genus Glaucostegus". FishBase. March 2024 version.