Flapper skate

The flapper skate has a long and pointed snout, the length of the snout is between 3.7 and 5.1 times the diameter of the orbit. The disc is roughly rhomboidal in shape with a deeply concave front edge. There is a row of spines along the centre of the tail in front of the dorsal fins and the spines on the sides of the tail point headwards. Juveniles have a smooth disc. The distance between the wingtips is around 2.4 times the total length. The upper surface of the body is dark olive-green in young with small light-coloured spots, changing to greyish-brown in adults. The dorsal surface of the flapper skate lacks any thornlets or scattered thorns, though males have patches of alar thorns. Their upper jaw has 46 rows of teeth, while their lower jaw has 41 rows. The underside is greyish or whitish. In this species the iris is olive green. The flapper skate has a maximum published total length of 285 cm (112 in), and is the largest species of skate in the world, and a maximum published weight of 113 kg (249 lb).

The flapper skate occurs in the Eastern Atlantic Ocean, its range overlapping somewhat with that of the blue skate, with most records coming from southern Norway and off the northern coasts of Scotland and Ireland. There have been a few confirmed records from Portugal and the Azores. This species is a demersal fish found on the continental shelf and slope at depths between 20 and 1,500 m (66 and 4,921 ft), however, it is mainly found at depths of less than 200 m (660 ft).

The flapper skate belongs to the genus Dipturus, a name which combines di-, meaning "two", pterus, meaning "wing" or "fin", and urus, meaning tail. This name refers to the two dorsal fins on the tail of these skates. The specific name intermedius was given to the holotypes of this species by Parnell because these were intermediate in form between D. batis and D. oxyrinchus.