Dactylobatus armatus Bean and Weed, 1909

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 : 307

Dactylobatus armatus Bean and Weed, 1909 —skillet skate

Synonyms: None

Distribution. Presence in the northern GOM is questionable (see First Record and Remarks below). Reported as being patchily distributed and rare in north central GOM from waters 338 to 685 m in depth.

First Record in GOM. Although this species is commonly reported as being present in the northern GOM (e.g. McEachran and Fechhelm 1998, McEachran and de Carvalho 2002; Last et al. 2016) there seems to be no sound basis for this determination. There are, to our knowledge, no records of this species being collected from the northern GOM either in research collections or in the literature.

Remarks. It is doubtful that this species actually occurs in the northern GOM since there appear to be no records of its capture either in research collections or in the literature. It is included here on the basis that previous authors have perpetuated its existence in the northern GOM in several guides covering the area (e.g. McEachran and Fechhelm 1998, McEachran and de Carvalho 2002; Last et al. 2016). If it does occur in the northern GOM, it is extremely rare and if collected in the future, representative specimens should be deposited in research collections with accurate locality data.

Conservation Status. Data Deficient