blue skate

Open encyclopedia reference

The blue skate (Dipturus batis), also known as the grey skate, blue-grey skate, and common skate, is a species of cartilaginous fish, a ray, belonging to the family Rajidae, the skates. It was formerly considered to be conspecific with the flapper skate (D. intermedius), the combined taxon being known as the common skate. Historically, it was one of the most abundant skates in the northeast Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea. Despite its name, today it appears to be absent from much of this range. Where previously abundant, fisheries directly targeted this skate and elsewhere it is caught incidentally as bycatch. The former species was uplisted to critically endangered on the IUCN Red List in 2006 and it is protected within the EU. Research published in 2009 and 2010 showed that the common skate should be split into two, the smaller southern D. cf. flossada (blue skate), and the larger northern D. cf. intermedius (flapper skate). Under this taxonomic arrangement, the name D. batis is recommended to be discarded. Currently, the scientific name D.

Wikipedia contributors, Blue skate; see linked history · CC BY-SA 4.0 . Plain-text lead excerpt, at most 180 words; no infobox or later sections Retrieved 2026-10-05T02:51:02.236057+00:00. This reference remains separate from the taxonomic record.

Identity & source status

Scientific name

Dipturus batis (Linnaeus, 1758)

Name authority

(Linnaeus, 1758)

Common name

blue skate

Rank

species

Accepted status

accepted

Kingdom

Animalia

Phylum

Chordata

Class

Elasmobranchii

Order

Rajiformes

Family

Rajidae

Genus

Dipturus

Extinction status

Not supplied by this source

Source habitat flags: Marine: yes · Freshwater: no · Terrestrial: no. These do not form a complete habitat description.

Classification family tree

Nested taxonomic groups from the source. This is not a direct-ancestor chain, a dated evolutionary tree or a phylogenetic reconstruction.

1. domainEukaryota (Chatton, 1925) Whittaker & Margulis, 1978
2. kingdomAnimalia
3. phylumChordata
4. subphylumVertebrata
5. infraphylumGnathostomata
6. parvphylumChondrichthyes
7. classElasmobranchii
8. subclassNeoselachii
9. infraclassBatoidea
10. orderRajiformes Berg, 1940
11. familyRajidae de Blainville, 1816
12. genusDipturus Rafinesque, 1810
13. speciesDipturus batis (Linnaeus, 1758)

Close classified relatives

These entries share the source’s genus, Dipturus. They are not necessarily the closest relatives established by molecular evidence.

Browse 122 records assigned to Rajidae.

Names & synonyms

Names explicitly linked to this accepted taxon in the source. Synonymy can change with revision.

Source literature & publication evidence

References attached to this source record, including nomenclatural citations where supplied. This is a selected bibliography; abbreviated citations remain in the source’s form.

1. https://www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=105869 Source fields: Taxon.tsv dwc:namePublishedIn, Taxon.tsv dcterms:references

Origins, evidence & remaining research

Name authority and publication references document nomenclature where the source supplies it. They do not establish evolutionary origins or the earliest fossil occurrence.

Specimen-level evidence, morphology, ecological research, phylogenetic studies, a comprehensive bibliography and a located literary passage have not yet been compiled for this record.

Dataset citation & attribution

This exact taxon in ChecklistBank · Catalogue of Life 2026-09-11

Catalogue of Life 2026-09-11; dataset 316321; doi:10.48580/dgz5n. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ . Retrieved 5 October 2026.

Stable key: col:36R33. Classification follows source parent identifiers. English common names may vary by region.