Bowmouth guitarfish
Rhina ancylostoma
Whitespotted Guitarfish
Rhynchobatus australiae
About
The whitespotted guitarfish is a shark-like ray that can grow to about 124 cm long, with a pointed snout and broad, flat pectoral fins. It lives on the seabed across the Indo-Pacific, from East Africa and the Red Sea to Taiwan, the Philippines and Australia.
Also known as: white-spotted guitarfish, shovelnose shark, sandshark, giant guitarfish, whitespot ray, fiddler, white-spotted shovelnose ray, white-spotted shovelnose-ray, white-spotted shovelnosed guitarfish, white-spotted shovelnosed ray, whitespot shovelnose ray, whitespotted wedgefish, bottlenose wedgefish
- Length
- 1,2 m
- Depth
- up to 60 m
How to tell it apart
It is easily confused with true shovelnose and fiddler rays, which share the same flattened, shark-like shape. Check the tail: this species has two clearly separate lobes on its tail fin, while those look-alikes have a much smaller lower lobe.
Appearance
Its body tapers from a sharply pointed snout into flat, triangular pectoral fins, giving it a shark-like outline. Young animals are grey or brown above, with scattered white spots and a black spot ringed by three white spots above each pectoral fin. Older, larger animals turn much darker, sometimes almost black, and lose these spots. A row of small thorns runs along the middle of its back.
Did you know?
This ray's shark-like shape is more than a passing resemblance to traders: despite being a ray, not a shark, it is caught and sold fresh with its fins prized for the shark fin trade.
Log it in Into the Blue
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