Sixgill stingray

Encyclopedia : S : SI : SIX : Sixgill stingray

The sixgill stringrays are a family, Hexatrygonidae, of rays containing a single genus, Hexatrygon. They are native to the coastal and oceanic waters off South Africa.

They are distinguished by their possession of six gill openings (other rays have five), and by the two spines in their tails.

Species

Several species have been described, including:

Hexatrygon bickelli Heemstra & Smith, 1980.
Hexatrygon longirostra (Chu & Meng, 1981).
Hexatrygon taiwanensis Shen, 1986.
Hexatrygon yangi Shen & Liu, 1984.

However, these are very similar and it is possible that they represent a single species.

References

["Hexatrygonidae"]. FishBase. Ed. Ranier Froese and Daniel Pauly. January 2006 version. N.p.: FishBase, 2006.
[Hexatrygonidae (TSN 564009)]. Integrated Taxonomic Information System. Accessed on 27 March 2006.

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