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- © Shin-Enoshima Aquarium. Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike License v2.5
These unique fish get the guitar part of their common name “guitarfish” from the shape of the body. The bowmouth part of the name is derived from their mouth shape that has wavy edges giving the appearance of a longbow, (a large, powerful, wooden hand-drawn bow). The distinctive appearance of these rays, that of a shark-ray mix, is the reason for some of their other common names, shark ray and sharkfin guitarfish.
Facts and Features
- Geographic Distribution
Indo-West Pacific: Red Sea and East Africa to Papua New Guinea, north to Japan, south to New South Wales, Australia
- Amazing Facts
The bowhead guitarfish, often described as prehistoric in appearance, is considered by some scientists to be the ‘missing link’ between sharks and rays based on the ray-like placement of the mouth and gill openings and disc shape of the front part of the body and the shark-like streamlined appearance of the rest of the body and the powerful tail.
- At the Aquarium
The bowmouth guitarfish is not exhibited at the Aquarium. This information is presented for reference information about this guitarfish species.
