Skate Cases

Creator

Preview

Photo Credit

Meredith C. Swartwout, Ph.D. Candidate, Biological Sciences

Object Type

Dried Mount Oceanic Specimen

Date

Spring 2021

Description

You may have seen these skate cases lying on the beach while looking for shells. These are the egg cases of skates and sharks. Skates are animals that look very much like stingrays, but stingrays and some sharks give live birth rather than laying eggs. The cases come in a variety of different forms and each case typically contains only one embryo. The exceptions are the Big Skate and the Mottled Skate, which lay eggs that contain up to 7 embryos [3].

[3] Ebert DA, Chante D. 2007. Descriptions of skate egg cases (Chondrichthyes: Rajiformes: Rajoidei) from the eastern North Pacific. Zootaxa 1393: 1-18.

Object Housed

University of Arkansas Museum

Object Accession Number

74-11-7