Gustavo Montero Hernández ¹ María José Caballero Cansino ^1* Ángel de la Guarda Curros Moreno ^1,2 Cristian Manuel Suárez Santana ¹ Miguel A. Rivero ¹ Lucía Caballero Hernández ¹ Mario Encinoso ³ Antonio Fernandez ¹ Ayoze Castro Alonso ¹

• ¹ Institute of Animal Health and Food Safety, University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Las Palmas of Gran Canaria, Spain
• ² Loro Parque Foundation, Puerto de la Cruz, Canary Islands, Spain
• ³ Veterinary Faculty, University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain

External injuries in elasmobranchs are frequent findings, either due to inter-or intraspecific interactions or as a result of interaction with human activities. However, the resilience of these species to traumatic injury remains poorly understood. This work provides an insight into the clinical presentation, diagnostic imaging, and pathological features of a severe traumatic injury to the cartilaginous skeleton of a spiny butterfly ray (Gymnura altavela). The animal presented a marked reduction in hematocrit and hepatosomatic index due a chronic debilitation process.The Computed Tomography (CT) scan revealed a destructive lesion with irregular margins at the level of the scapulocoracoid cartilage. The main pathological findings were the disorganization of the tesserae layer, appearing as whitish square to rectangular geometric pieces separated from the cartilaginous core. Histologically, these pieces of tesserae were separated from the unmineralized cartilage core and displaced from the adjacent perichondrium, where inflammatory cells infiltrate. Edema and hemorrhages were also observed. This study reports, for the first time, the CT diagnosis and a comprehensive anatomopathological study of a traumatic lesion of the skeleton in a spiny butterfly ray.