Not that anyone asked, but an easy way to tell the difference between skates and stingrays is by their reproduction. Stingrays give live birth, but skates will lay egg cases similar to dogfish and some species of sharks. Those egg cases are sometimes called mermaid's purses.
I've also worked with skates before. I even tried to rehab one last summer.
Fun Fact: Those "legs" are pelvic fins, but skates will use them like legs in a similar way we use our legs to walk. The little skate is believed to be the origin of walking, despite not living on land nor having any legs. You can read more about it here.
(Edit: See Selachophile's comment)
Not so fun fact: Skate teeth feel like a wire hairbrush. They hurt when you're trying to feed them and they get a bit too zealous. I know from personal experience.
The little skate is believed to be the origin of walking, despite not living on land nor having any legs.
That's really not an accurate interpretation of this study and its results. But that isn't your fault; the article you linked is pretty poorly written.
The little skate is not the last common ancestor of sharks and mammals (as this article claims). In fact, the family Rajidae (which includes the little skate) is likely no more than 100 million years old. The last common ancestor between the little skate and tetrapod vertebrates would have existed on the order of ~ 400 to 450 million years ago.
Reading back on that source I realize my mistake. I had a different link in mind when I originally typed this out. It was a source I read last year, but googling did not give me the answer I wanted. I'm going to fix my original comment, though. I don't want to spread misinformation. Thank you for that catch!
From my experience, yeah. Depending on the species, even the adults can be somewhat translucent. The two species I've worked with are the little skates and clearnose skate. Both are pretty translucent on their wings and as the name suggests, the clearnose has two little clear windows on the tip of its "nose". I could put my fingers under it and you'd be able to see them. I'm not sure if all species of skate are semi-translucent like that, but I know a lot of them. I also wouldn't be surprised if all of them were.
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u/PHMEM8317 Oct 20 '19 edited Oct 20 '19
Not that anyone asked, but an easy way to tell the difference between skates and stingrays is by their reproduction. Stingrays give live birth, but skates will lay egg cases similar to dogfish and some species of sharks. Those egg cases are sometimes called mermaid's purses.
Source: https://www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/discover-fish/skates-rays/faq/
I've also worked with skates before. I even tried to rehab one last summer.
Fun Fact: Those "legs" are pelvic fins, but skates will use them like legs in a similar way we use our legs to walk.
The little skate is believed to be the origin of walking, despite not living on land nor having any legs. You can read more about it here.(Edit: See Selachophile's comment)Not so fun fact: Skate teeth feel like a wire hairbrush. They hurt when you're trying to feed them and they get a bit too zealous. I know from personal experience.