Skate (fish)

Skates Temporal range: Late Cretaceous–Recent PreꞒ Ꞓ O S D C P T J K Pg N [1]
Arctic skate, Amblyraja hyperborea
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Chondrichthyes
Order:	Rajiformes
Family:	Rajidae Bonaparte, 1831

For the act of skating, see skating.

Skates are cartilaginous fish. They are the family Rajidae in the order Rajiformes. They are chondrichthyes, and closely related to the rays. There are more than 200 species in 27 genera.^[1]

There are two subfamilies, the hardnose skates and the softnose skates.

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1} Froese, Rainer, and Daniel Pauly, eds. (2009). "Rajidae" in FishBase. January 2009 version.