Fish Identification Photos: Shovelnose Guitarfish, Rhinobatos productus: The Shovelnose Guitarfish has a yellow-brown coloration but is white underneath. It has a spade-shaped, flattened head and a pair of soulful woebegone eyes. The body disk of the Shovelnose Guitarfish is longer than it is wide.

The Shovelnose Guitarfish also has a row of thorny projections along the mid-back from behind the eye to the first dorsal fin, and long thin tail. This fish can be confused with two other species of Guitarfish: the Speckled Guitarfish, Rhinobatos glaucostigma (snout with two wide ridges made of cartilage; pectoral and pelvic fins with pale margins); and the Pale Snout Guitarfish, Rhinobatos leucorhynchus (white snout).

The Shovelnose Guitarfish reaches a maximum size of 5.5 feet and 40 pounds. It is found in shallow coastal waters over sandy or mud bottoms normally in the first 75 feet of the water column and can be found in large aggregations.

It is found in all Mexican waters, with the exception of the oceanic islands, and is not present along the coast of the mainland north of Acapulco. It feeds on invertebrates and small fish. The Shovelnose Guitarfish is considered to be harmless to humans and was utilized as a food by Native Americans.

The Shovelnose Guitarfish is a member of the Rhinobatidae Family and Rhinobatos Genus. All members have shark-like bodies with two equal sized dorsal fins, asymmetrical caudal fins with no lower lobe, and long pointed snouts with two central cartilage ridges that form a triangular shape.

There are a total of 35 global members of the Rhinobatos Genus of which three are found in Mexican waters.