Porcupine ray

Hedgehog skate ( Urogymnus asperrimus )

The hedgehog skate ( Urogymnus asperrimus ) is a widely used heavily in tropical seas armored stingrays.

Features

Hedgehog skates are a maximum of 147 inches long. The body plate is very thick, built higher than in most other species of skates and nearly round. The body surface of young hedgehog skate is additionally occupied with flat skin teeth, the greater rays and the young adult specimens with sharp, conical thorns and smaller pointed teeth skin. The spines can cause painful injuries. The tail is slender and just as long as the body washer. Fins on the tail and a poisonous sting in the tail, a typical feature of other stingrays, are missing. The back side of the hedgehog skate is gray or whitish, the tail darker, the ventral surface white.

Lifestyle and dissemination

Hedgehog rays live in the coastal areas to depths of 30 meters. They are relatively rare. Preferred habitats are sandy or covered with crushed coral areas in lagoons or near coral reefs. Also quite often hide in caves or rest buried in the sand. Hedgehog rays feed mainly on crustaceans. Like all Stingray is the hedgehog skate ovoviviparous and gives birth to a litter of up to 12 young Rays.

The hedgehog rays occurs in the Red Sea and the Indo-Pacific from the coast of East Africa to Australia, Fiji and the Marshall Islands. There is also a population in the eastern tropical Atlantic from the coast of Senegal to the Ivory Coast, which has been described asperrimus under the synonym Urogymnus. The hedgehog skate is the only species of the genus Urogymnus.