If you click on a blue scientific name, you will be taken to the final information block for that group. This will automatically bring up the next set of questions. Sharks and Rays Sharks, rays, skates, sawfishes, sawsharks, guitarfishes, and their kin are all representatives of the vertebrate class Chondrichthyes. This CD-ROM covers the subclass Elasmobranchii. Rays and sharks can, however, be distinguished by several characteristics, even when similar looking species from each group are considered.
Rays have a flattened body, but some are subcylindrical, while some sharks are rather flat.
Note that the sawshark has gill slits on the sides of the body and the pectoral fins start behind the gill slits. In the sawfish, the gill slits are under the body and the pectoral fins attach directly to the head. Drawing by R. G. Sprackland. Tax o nomy is that branch of biology concerned with the naming and classification of living organisms. During the past decades, taxonomy has decreasingly been taught as part of college curricula even for biology majors, so it is not surprising that people competent to correctly identify many species are becoming rare.