Breviraja Bigelow and Schroeder, 1948
Snout mostly short, flexible and soft due to rostral cartilage, which is extremely delicate and extends only about two-thirds along snout to end blindly, or reaching to snout tip; rostral appendices either fused or not to rostral cartilage, generally extending back for three-quarters of snout, their long ends free. Anterior pectoral finrays extending almost to snout tip. Spination pattern and coloration variable, but generally as in shallow-water species of Raja.
Dwarf species (maximum 30-40 cm TL) confined to deep- or moderately deepwater. The males at least are easily distinguished because their claspers are already fully developed when the fish is quite small.
Species about 15; in Clofnam area 2.
Recent revisions: on regional basis only (see under family); an extensive worldwide revision by McEachran and Compagno (1982).
Species of this genus in the program:
Breviraja caerulea
Breviraja sp.