Common names
African Brown Skate

Short Description
Original diagnosis after LAST & SÉRET, 2016 [24345]: A small Raja (to about 41 cm TL) with the following combination of characters: disc subcircular, width 57–60% TL, 1.2 times its length; snout angle 91–96°; tail short, length 1.2–1.4 times distance from snout tip to rear of cloaca; tail narrow, width 1.2–1.3 times height at its midlength, 1.1 times at first dorsal-fin origin; pre-upper jaw length 10–13% TL, 1.5–1.8 times internasal width; ventral head length 24–26% TL; snout length 3–3.8 times interorbital width; orbit diameter 1.06–0.99 times interorbital width; first dorsal-fin height 3.4–3.9 in its base length; long procaudal tail, length from first dorsal-fin origin to tail tip 3.8–4.7 times first dorsal-fin base length, 3.4–3.6 times caudal-fin length (base of epichordal lobe of caudal fin very long); pelvic fins relatively short, length of posterior lobe 17–18% TL, length of anterior lobe 63–72% of posterior lobe; adult clasper relatively large, ~24% TL, connected to pelvic-fin inner margin at ~47% of its length from cloaca; anterior margin of head with denticle bands on both surfaces in adult male; 2 nuchal thorns; well-developed malar thorn patch in adult male; 3–5 thorn rows on tail; total pectoral-fin radials 79–81; trunk centra usually 27–28; predorsal centra usually 75–86; total centra ~128–131; tooth rows in upper jaw 38–46; brown dorsally with faint lighter and darker speckling; pectoral ocelli moderately large, consisting of dark bluish grey spot surrounded by a black and a yellow ring; ventral surface whitish with reddish yellow snout tip and disc margin

Distribution
Eastern Central Atlantic; Dakar (Senegal) south to Angola [24345]

Size / Weight / Age
TL max: 411 mm TL (female paratype) [24345]

Habitat
demersal; marine [24345]

Dentition
Tooth rows in upper jaw (counted from radiographs only) ~46 in holotype (38 in paratype); lower jaw 39 (42). [24345]

Remarks
shark-references Species-ID=14668;