Author: (Mitchill, 1815)
Dasyatis centroura (Mitchill, 1815)
Status in World Register of Marine Species:
Accepted name: Dasyatis centroura (Mitchill, 1815) (updated 2009-06-25)
Diagnosis: snout obtuse, little produced; disc rhomboid, front and hind margins more or less straight; tail twice as long as disc length, with a relatively long and deep membranous fold below (originating at level of spine), but no fold or ridge above. Floor of mouth with 5-6 fleshy papillae. Upper surfaces with large tubercles or bucklers along midline and middle of disc in larger specimens, as well as large thorns along top and sides of tail. Colour: upper surfaces olive-brown; underside nearly white. Size: to 210 cm disc width, usually 100-130 cm.
Habitat: benthic over sandy and muddy bottoms, from shallow water to about 200 m; moderately common in Mediterranean. Food: bottom-living invertebrates and fishes. Reproduction: ovoviviparous; gestation about 4 months, with 2-4 young produced in autumn and early winter; disc width 34-36 cm at birth.
Distribution: Atlantic coasts from Madeira and Morocco northward to southern Bay of Biscay; also Mediterranean (most common off Algeria, Tunisia, Sicily), not in Black Sea. Elsewhere, southward to Zaire; also western Atlantic, from George's Bank to Florida and eastern Gulf of Mexico, and from Uruguay to southern Brazil.
Complementary iconography. Bini, 1967: 177-178, fig.
Eggs, embryonic and young stages. Capapé, 1974c: 345, fig. 1-2.