Batoid wing skeletal structure: novel morphologies, mechanical implications, and phylogenetic patterns

The skeleton of the "wings" of skates and rays consists of a series of radially oriented cartilaginous fin rays emanating from a modified pectoral girdle. Each fin ray consists of small, laterally oriented skeletal elements, radials, traditionally represented as simple cylindrical building blocks. High-resolution radiography reveals the pattern of calcification in batoid wing elements, and their organization within the fin ray, to be considerably more complex and phylogenetically variable than previously thought. Calcification patterns of radials varied between families, as well as within individual pectoral fins. Oscillatory swimmers show structural interconnections between fin rays in central areas of the wing. Morphological variation was strongly predictive of locomotor strategy, which we attribute to oscillatory swimmers needing different areas of the wing stiffened than do undulatory swimmers. Contributions of various forms of calcification to radial stiffness were calculated theoretically. Results indicate that radials completely covered by mineralized tissue ("crustal calcification") were stiffer than those that were calcified in chain-like patterns ("catenated calcification"). Mapping this functionally important variation onto a phylogeny reveals a more complicated pattern than the literature suggests for the evolution of locomotor mode. Therefore, further investigation into the phylogenetic distribution of swimming mode is warranted.