While leopard skates are typically not aggressive, if provoked in their search for food on the floor the skate will use its barbed tail in defense. The skate will strike with its tail much like a scorpion will strike its prey. Although this unique shape of the skate may seem odd it is one of the many unique synapomorphies of the order Batoidea. This order contains 600 species and 26 families. Along with flattened bodies, protruding cartilage, and an absent anal fin are major synapomorphies of this order. While this particular Batoidea species is equipped with sharp spikes on its back and tail other sister families have adopted different ways of presenting protruding cartilage. Sawfish are in a sister family to skates called, Pristidae.
