Dipturus bullisi ( Bigelow and Schroeder, 1962 )

Jones, Christian M., Driggers Iii, William B., Hannan, Kristin M., Hoffmayer, Eric R., Jones, Lisa M. & Raredon, Sandra J., 2020, An annotated checklist of the chondrichthyan fishes inhabiting the northern Gulf of Mexico Part 1: Batoidea, Zootaxa 4803 (2), pp. 281-315 : 286-287

Dipturus bullisi ( Bigelow and Schroeder, 1962) —lozenge skate, Tortugas skate

Synonyms: Raja bullisi Bigelow and Schroeder, 1962

Distribution. Commonly considered as being patchily distributed throughout the northern GOM from depths of approximately 185 to 550 m, although NMFS SEFSC trawl surveys have reported this species as shallow as 125 m depth.

First Record in GOM. Bigelow and Schroeder (1962) based their description of this species on two specimens (holotype USNM 196442 , Figure 3 , and paratype MCZ 40673) collected from the continental slope southwest of the Dry Tortugas aboard the RV Silver Bay in 1959 ( Bullis and Thompson 1965) as well as several additional specimens (e.g. MCZ 39993, 39994 , 41154 , 41163 and 41168) collected from the same general area aboard the RV Oregon in 1955 ( Springer and Bullis 1956) .

Remarks. The genus Dipturus is currently under revision and the species from the GOM are of particular interest as little is known of their biology and habits.

Conservation Status. Data Deficient

Figures

FIGURE 3. Dorsal (A) and ventral (B) perspectives of the holotype of Dipturus bullisi (USNM 196442) collected from the northern Gulf of Mexico. Photographs by Sandra J. Raredon, USNM.