Skilletskate (Dactylobatus armatus)

Description: Skates may look a lot like stingrays but don’t worry, among other differences, they don’t have barbs to sting you with. The scientific name of this deep-water skate identifies an interesting characteristic that sets it apart from other skates. “Dactylos” in Greek means ‘finger’ and is used to describe the fingerlike projections on the wings of this skate’s body. This skate is relatively small, reaching only about 12 inches in width.

Figure 2: Approximate depth range of Skilletskate (black box). Slope of seafloor is a generalized representation of the Gulf of Mexico shelf and outer continental shelf.