Rays (Batoidea) are among the most threatened groups of vertebrates. Slow growth and low fecundity make many species vulnerable to overfishing, but increased demand for gill rakers in traditional Chinese medicine and elasmobranch meat means exploitation continues. In response, protection has increased, with manta and devilrays (Mobulidae) and sawfishes (Pristidae) now listed on Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES). This protection requires an accurate assay for species identification, even when parts of the body have been removed or products have been processed. Therefore, we developed and tested a new COI minibarcode to identify ray species among processed samples. This assay was tested on 25 samples from across four batoid orders and showed consistent amplification. In 68% of cases, a correct top match was identified on GenBank and BOLD, but its accuracy should be much higher (particularly due to extensive taxonomic revisions in this group). Bioinformatic analysis of existing sequences also showed 81% of minibarcodes were matched back to a single species and 100% correctly back to all other taxonomic ranks. This increased to 91% when only including records published in the previous 2 years (that should help to account for recent taxonomic revisions). Analysis of skate ‘wings’ and cooked samples was highly successful, allowing the unambiguous identification of species. These results suggest this minibarcode will be highly useful in identifying ray species and could have a range of applications from the analysis of processed products to investigations of environmental DNA, making them an effective tool in the conservation of endangered batoids.

射线（Batoidea）是受威胁最大的脊椎动物群体之一。生长缓慢和繁殖力低下使许多物种容易过度捕捞，但是对传统中药和g鱼肉的g耙的需求增加意味着剥削仍在继续。作为回应，保护得到了加强，其中蝠man和de鱼（and科）和锯鱼（P科）现已列入《濒危物种国际贸易公约》（CITES）。这种保护要求准确的化验，以进行物种识别，即使身体的一部分已被去除或产品已被处理。因此，我们开发并测试了一种新的COI minicode，以识别经过处理的样本中的射线种类。在来自四个蝙蝠阶的25个样品上测试了该测定法，并显示出一致的扩增。在68％的情况下，在GenBank和BOLD上确定了正确的最高匹配，但是其准确性应该更高（特别是由于该组中的分类学修订较大）。现有序列的生物信息学分析还显示，有81％的迷你代码与单个物种匹配，而100％正确地与所有其他生物分类级别匹配。仅包括前两年发布的记录时，这一比例增加到了91％（这应该有助于解释最近的分类学修订）。溜冰鞋的“翅膀”和煮熟的样品的分析非常成功，从而可以明确鉴定物种。这些结果表明，此minicode在识别射线种类方面将非常有用，并且可能具有从加工产品分析到环境DNA调查的广泛应用，