A Classification of the Recent Elasmobranchii

Range;Red Sea to Natal,S. Africa, east to Borneo, New Guinea & Queensland.Fiji Is.,Micronesia.
Off coast of tropical West Africa ( Senegal to Liberia )
FC 00 035027
U. UKPAM ( Smith ) 1863 Pincushion Ray ; Thorny Freshwater Stingray
Hemitrygon ukpam SMITH 1863 t/l; Old Calabar River, Gabon, W. Africa
Range: Tropical West Africa ( Freshwater)
MALFORMED SPECIMENS
Genus BRACHIOPTERA Gratzianow 1906
Brachioptera GRATZIANOW, V. I. 1906, Zoologische Anzeiger, 30, 1906 p. 400 type
Brachioptera rhinoceros GRATZIANOW 1906 Gen. nov. and sp. nov.
B. RHNOCEROS Gratzianow 1906
Brachioptera rhinoceros GRATZIANOW 1906
Brachioptera rhinoptera BIGELOW & SCHROEDER 1953 (ref. only) (lapsus)
Based on an embryo with anterior parts of pectorals free from sides of head, probably Himantura or
Gymnura ( Bigelow & Schroeder 1953 ) because without caudal folds. According to Gratzianow the
original specimen from Singapore was brought to the Zoologische Museum der Kais.
Moscow University (Zool.) by Dr. W. Issaew from Singapore on 18/02/1889. Fowler (1941) lists
Brachioptera in the synonymy of Himantura. Bigelow & Schroeder erroneously quote the name as
Brachioptera rhinoptera.in Fishes of the Western North Atlantic, Sears Foundation for Marine
Research, Memoir no. 1 part 2 Sawfishes, Guitarfishes, Skates Rays and Chimaeras Yale University
1953 p. 389.
In his 1906 paper Gratzianow suggested the formation of a new family Brachiopteridae for what he
called a special group of rays with anterior pectorals unfused with the head. It was to include B.
rhnoceros, Planerocephalus ellioti, n. spp. as well as possibly for Cephaleutherus maculatus
Rafinesque 1815 (called maculosus by Gratzianow) and Propterygia hyposticta of Otto 1821. He also
indicated in a footnote that Brachioptilon hamiltoni Newman 1849 may have belonged here. It is now
known that the first four are malformations of common rays although the exact species is not always
certain. The last is the East Pacfic representative of Manta birostris.
Family HEXATRYGONIDAE
Sixgill Stingrays
Genus HEXATRYGON Heemstra & Smith 1980
Hexatrygon HEEMSTRA & SMITH 1980, type Hexatrygon bickelli HEEMSTRA & SMITH 1980.
Hexatrematobatis CHU & MENG 1981 type Hexatrematobatis longirostris CHU & MENG 1981
H. BICKELLI Heemstra & Smith 1980 Sixgill Stingray
Hexatrygon bickelli HEEMSTRA & SMITH 1980 t/l; S. Africa
? Hexatrematobatis longirostris CHU & MENG 1981 t/l; S. China Sea
? Hexatrygon longirostra SHEN & LIU 1984 (error)
? Hexatrygon yangi SHEN & LIU 1984 t/l; Taiwan
? Hexatrygon brevirostra SHEN 1986 t/l; Taiwan
? Hexatrygon taiwanensis SHEN 1986 t/l; Taiwan
? Hexatrygon sp. A LAST & STEVENS 1993 t/l; slope off Flinders Reef, Queensland &
Exmouth Plateau to Shark Bay, W. Australia. 900-1120 m.
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