Fenestraja sinusmexicanus ( Bigelow and Schroeder, 1950 )

Jones, Christian M., Driggers Iii, William B., Hannan, Kristin M., Hoffmayer, Eric R., Jones, Lisa M. & Raredon, Sandra J., 2020, An annotated checklist of the chondrichthyan fishes inhabiting the northern Gulf of Mexico Part 1: Batoidea, Zootaxa 4803 (2), pp. 281-315 : 295-296

Fenestraja sinusmexicanus ( Bigelow and Schroeder, 1950) —Gulf skate, Gulf pygmy skate

Synonyms:

Breviraja sinusmexicanus Bigelow and Schroeder, 1950

Gurgesiella sinusmexicanus ( Bigelow and Schroeder, 1950)

Distribution. From the Big Bend area of the north western Florida coast to the Texas/ Mexico border in approximately 60 to 1095 m of water.

First Record in GOM. As the specific epithet suggests, the original description of this species ( Bigelow and Schroeder 1950) was based on several specimens (holotype USNM 103376 , Figure 12 ) collected from various locations in the northeastern GOM in 1885 ( Townsend 1901).

Remarks. This is a deep water species that is rarely captured and, therefore, little is known of their biology. Recent deep water expeditions conducted by NOAA in the northern GOM utilizing an ROV managed to capture several videos of this species in situ.

Conservation Status. Data Deficient

Figures

FIGURE 12. Dorsal (A) and ventral (B) perspectives of the holotype of Fenestraja sinusmexicanus (USNM 103376) collected from the northern Gulf of Mexico. Photographs by Sandra J. Raredon, USNM.