Darkbelly Skate

Bathyraja meridionalis is a large deep-water skate, exceeding 1 m in total length. It has a short, blunt snout and is dark brown on both its dorsal and ventral surfaces. The upper surface of the disc is covered with coarse denticles, while the underside is smooth. A continuous row of more than 30 thorns extends from the nape to the first dorsal fin.

The species was described from the eastern continental slope of South Georgia, where the two type specimens were collected at approximately 800 m depth. Bottom-water temperatures at the type localities were around 1.9–2 °C. Stehmann considered it a deep-water species with a likely southern Atlantic or broader Southern Hemisphere distribution.

The specific epithet meridionalis is derived from the Latin meridianus, meaning “southerly”, referring to the type localities being, at the time of its description, the southernmost records of a deep-water species of the genus Bathyraja.

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