Author: (Garrick, 1961)
Bathyraja richardsoni (Garrick, 1961)
Status in World Register of Marine Species:
Accepted name: Bathyraja richardsoni (Garrick, 1961) (updated 2009-06-25)
Diagnosis: snout long and soft, moderately pointed; front margins of disc undulating and concave, but occasionally straight; tail relatively short. Upper surface almost entirely spinulose. No thorns on disc, but a median row of 15-20 thorns on tail; dorsal fins more or less close-set, but no thorn between; underside prickly to varying degrees, but spinules usually present on snout, body, abdomen and tail. Colour: upper surface brownish-grey in somewhat varying intensity; underside similar, but always whitish markings along midline of body, in the pelvic region and on tail. Size: to about 175 cm TL.
Habitat: benthic in deepwater on lower parts of continental slopes, on submarine rises and on deep-sea plains adjacent to both; recorded from 1,370 to 2,360 m; rare, only 28 specimens known. Food: almost exclusively fishes, with a small amount of shrimps (in four western North Atlantic specimens). Reproduction: oviparous; egg-cases, embryos and young unknown.
Distribution: continental slope in north-western Bay of Biscay (8 specimens). Elsewhere, continental slope of western North Atlantic, from southern Labrador southward to south-western George's Bank (19 specimens), and Cook Strait, New Zealand (the holotype).