A new species of shovelnose ray from Philippine

Rhinobatos is a genus of cartilaginous fish in the Rhinobatidae family, also know as guitarfish, catch their prey using a suction technique. The relative sequence of muscle activity is shared across the Rhinobatos genus, but varies in timing and duration of muscular activation.

The new shovelnose ray, Rhinobatos whitei is described from material collected at fish markets of the southern Philippines. This ray was first formally indentified as an undescribed species more than a decade ago as part of a WWF funded survey of sharks and rays of the Philippines. It was considered to be most closely related to another shovelnose ray found nearby in the western North Pacific, R. schlegelii, but differs from that species in body shape and aspects of coloration, meristics and morphometry.

• Reference: Last et al 2014. Rhinobatos whitei, A New Shovelnose Ray (Batoidea: Rhinobatidae) from the Philippine Archipelago. Zootaxa.

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