Revised 26 Nov. 2025
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Plesiobatis Nishida 1990 plḗsios (πλήσιος), near, root word of plesiomorph, i.e., a primitive character state, referring to this genus being the most primitive (i.e., least derived) myliobatiform ray; batís (βατίς), a flat fish, usually applied to a skate or ray

Plesiobatis daviesi (Wallace 1967) in honor of David H. Davies (1922–1965), late director of the Oceanographic Research Institute (Durban, South Africa), “who was responsible for the initiation of research on the batoid fishes of the east coast of Southern Africa”