Common skate
Common skate (Dipturus batis)
The common skate (Dipturus batis ) is the largest skates ( Batoidea ) along the European coasts. Large specimens reach a length of 2.85 meters and a weight of 110 kilograms. Usually he is, however, only 1.0 to 1.5 meters long.
According to recent analyzes, it is evidently two species, of which one is already almost extinct. The two forms are provisionally referred to as Dipturus cf flossada and Dipturus cf intermedia.
Features
Skates have a rhombic body, a brown top and a gray underside. On the top they have multiple eyespots. The snout is pointed, distinctly emarginate, the leading edge of the wings. On the cock she wearing a number 12 to 18 spines, which grow only adult animals.
Dissemination
Dipturus batis lives near the coast in the northeastern Atlantic from Senegal to the North Cape and Iceland, the North Sea, in the westernmost part of the Baltic Sea and the Western Mediterranean, from Gibraltar to the north coast of Tunisia and, to the north, to the western coast of the Aegean Sea.
Way of life
Young Rays live in shallow water, adult animals at depths of 100 to 600 meters. They feed on benthic animals, first by small invertebrates such as polychaetes and crustaceans, later mostly fish such as sandeels and flatfish. In the spring to mate the skate, in the summer, females lay rectangular, initially green, later brown egg capsules. The egg capsules have at each corner each one holding thread and with sizes up to 24 x 14 cm very large.