white skate
Rostroraja alba (Lacepède, 1803)
Accepted species in Catalogue of Life’s 11 September 2026 base release. This preserves the source classification and available supporting data; it is not a completed species monograph.
Open encyclopedia reference
The bottlenose skate, spearnose skate, or white skate (Rostroraja alba) is a species of skate in the family Rajidae. It is a benthic fish native to the coastal eastern Atlantic Ocean. Due to overfishing, it has been depleted or extirpated in many parts of its former range in the northeastern Atlantic and the Mediterranean Sea, and is now endangered.
Wikipedia contributors, Bottlenose skate; see linked history · CC BY-SA 4.0 . Plain-text lead excerpt, at most 180 words; no infobox or later sections Retrieved 2026-10-05T02:54:46.141089+00:00. This reference remains separate from the taxonomic record.
Identity & source status
- Scientific name
- Rostroraja alba (Lacepède, 1803)
- Name authority
- (Lacepède, 1803)
- Common name
- white skate
- Rank
- species
- Accepted status
- accepted
- Kingdom
- Animalia
- Phylum
- Chordata
- Class
- Elasmobranchii
- Order
- Rajiformes
- Family
- Rajidae
- Genus
- Rostroraja
- 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.
- domainEukaryota (Chatton, 1925) Whittaker & Margulis, 1978
- kingdomAnimalia
- phylumChordata
- subphylumVertebrata
- infraphylumGnathostomata
- parvphylumChondrichthyes
- classElasmobranchii
- subclassNeoselachii
- infraclassBatoidea
- orderRajiformes Berg, 1940
- familyRajidae de Blainville, 1816
- genusRostroraja Hulley, 1972
- speciesRostroraja alba (Lacepède, 1803)
Close classified relatives
These entries share the source’s genus, Rostroraja. They are not necessarily the closest relatives established by molecular evidence.
| Species | Classification | Source status |
|---|---|---|
| Rostroraja eglanteria (Bosc, 1800) | RajidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Rostroraja velezi (Chirichigno F., 1973) | RajidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Rostroraja ackleyi (Garman, 1881) | RajidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Rostroraja equatorialis (Jordan & Bollman, 1890) | RajidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
Names & synonyms
Names explicitly linked to this accepted taxon in the source. Synonymy can change with revision.
| Recorded name | Source status |
|---|---|
| Raja marginata Lacepède, 1803 Lacepède, 1803 | synonym |
| Raja bramante (Sassi, 1846) (Sassi, 1846) | synonym |
| Raia rostellata Risso, 1810 Risso, 1810 | synonym |
| Raia alba Lacepède, 1803 Lacepède, 1803 | synonym |
| Raia bicolor Risso, 1827 Risso, 1827 | synonym |
| Raja alba Lacepède, 1803 Lacepède, 1803 | synonym |
| Raja bicolor Shaw, 1804 Shaw, 1804 | synonym |
| Raja rostellata Risso, 1810 Risso, 1810 | synonym |
| Laeviraja bramante Sassi, 1846 Sassi, 1846 | synonym |
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.
- https://www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=105896 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. A suitable sourced image remains to be added.
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:4TFRS. Classification follows source parent identifiers. English common names may vary by region.