---
title: Bowmouth Guitarfish (Rhina ancylostomus)
scientific_name: Rhina ancylostomus
common_name: Bowmouth Guitarfish
taxon: Guitarfish
conservation_status: CR - Critically Endangered
published: 2024-11-04T11:52:16.725Z
updated: 2026-08-12T14:03:48.858Z
tags: Bowmouth Guitarfish, Rhina ancylostomus, Guitarfish, Red Sea, Marine Life, Diving
url: https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/rays/guitarfish/bowmouth-guitarfish
---

# Bowmouth Guitarfish (*Rhina ancylostomus*)

## Quick facts

- **Group:** Guitarfish (*Rhinobatidae*)
- **Size:** up to 2.7 m
- **Weight:** 135 Kg
- **Depth:** 3-90 m
- **Diet:** Carnivore
- **Activity:** Nocturnal
- **Rarity:** Very Rare
- **Habitat:** Sand and rubble near reef, resting on the bottom by day
- **Reproduction:** Live-bearer, Gonochoric
- **CITES:** Appendix II
- **Conservation status:** CR - Critically Endangered

## How to recognise it

- shark's body and tail on a broad flattened ray-like head
- heavy ridges of thorns over the eyes and along the back
- gray-blue with white spots, and a pair of dark bars over the pectoral fins
- length up to 2.7 m

An animal that looks assembled from parts: the head and front of a ray, flattened and broad with a rounded mouth, running back into the body and tail of a shark. Up to 2.7 m (9 ft), gray-blue with white spots and heavy ridges of thorns over the eyes and along the spine.

It is a ray, and the shape is the oldest part of the story: guitarfishes sit near the base of the ray family tree, and this is roughly what a ray looked like before rays flattened completely. The thorn ridges are defensive, and they are the only weapon it has - no sting, no barb.

The mouth is a mill. Rows of low ridged teeth crush crabs, molluscs and bottom-dwelling fish, and the animal hunts by nosing along sand at night, spending the day resting motionless on the bottom.

It is Critically Endangered, and the reason is unglamorous: it lives in exactly the shallow coastal water that trawlers and gillnets work, its fins are among the most valuable in the trade, and it produces few young after a long gestation. It has disappeared from large parts of its range within living memory, and a sighting here is exceptional.

## Also known as

- **English:** Bowmouth Guitarfish, Mud Skate, Shark Ray
- **Arabic:** الحريري ذو الفم المقوس
- **Turkish:** gitar baligi
- **Japanese:** シノノメサカタザメ, Shinonomesakatazame

## Scientific synonyms

- *Rhina anclyostoma* Bloch & Schneider, 1801
- *Rhina ancylostoma* Bloch & Schneider, 1801
- *Rhina cyclostomus* Swainson, 1839
- *Rhynchobatis ancylostomus* Bloch & Schneider, 1801
- *Squatina ancyclostoma* (Bloch & Schneider, 1801)

---

*Source: [Red Sea Creatures](https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/rays/guitarfish/bowmouth-guitarfish)*
*Updated: August 12, 2026*