Skates Fossil range: Late Cretaceous–Recent PreЄ Є O S D C P T J K Pg N [1]
Barndoor skate, Dipturus laevis
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Chondrichthyes
Subclass:	Elasmobranchii
Superorder:	Batoidea
Order:	Rajiformes
Family:	Rajidae

Skates are cartilaginous fish belonging to the family Rajidae in the superorder Batoidea of rays. There are more than 200 described species in 27 genera.

[edit] Genera

[edit] Conservation

Skates have slow growth rates and, since they mature late, low reproductive rates. As a result skates are vulnerable to overfishing and it appears that skates have been overfished and are suffering reduced population levels in many parts of the world. The barndoor skate, Raja laevis, is currently listed with the IUCN as vulnerable due to being severely overfished.^[2] However, population data is lacking to determine the exploitation of the big skate at this time.

[edit] Gallery

Skate (Raja erinacea).	Broad skate, Amblyraja badia.	Skate wings.	A Skate, half-buried beneath the sand.
A cut-away view of a Skate egg case.

[edit] See also

• Anacanthobatidae, the family of smooth skates
• Jenny Haniver, a fake sea monster created from a skate corpse

[edit] References

[edit] External links

Wikispecies has information related to: Rajidae

Wikimedia Commons has more pictures of: Rajidae

Look up skate in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Wikibooks Cookbook has a recipe/module on Skate

• ARKive - images and movies of the common skate (Dipturus batis)
• Kliman, Todd. "Skate Goes From Trash Fish to Treasure", Washingtonian, May 1, 2006.

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