Short answers, pulled from the story.
The 5th edition of Fishes of the World classifies Batomorphi as a division within cartilaginous fishes. These creatures possess boneless skeletons made from tough, elastic cartilage instead of rigid bone.
Antiquaobatis stands as the oldest confirmed ray fossil found in Germany during the Pliensbachian stage of the Jurassic epoch. This finding contributes to the lineage history tracing back through deep time alongside other early fossils like Heliobatis radians from the Early Eocene.
Most batomorphs carry five ventral gill slits while Hexatrygonidae species hold six. Gill slits lie under the pectoral fins on the underside of the body for breathing purposes.
Molecular evidence refutes the hypothesis that skates and rays are derived directly from sharks. A 2011 study significantly reevaluated the phylogeny using nuclear and mitochondrial DNA from 37 taxa to confirm these relationships.
A 2021 study published in Nature documents a global decline of 71% in oceanic sharks and rays over fifty years. Overfishing has increased extinction risk so that three-quarters of these species are now threatened with extinction.