Chondrichthyes are jawed fish with paired fins, paired nostrils, scales, two-chambered hearts, and skeletons made of cartilage rather than bone. Animals from this group have a brain weight relative to body size that comes close to that of mammals. Extant cartilaginous fishes range in size from the dwarf lanternshark, at 16 cm (6.3 in), to the whale shark, growing to at least 13.6 m (45 feet). As you can see having no bones has nothing to do with how big you are or can become.
The common name of this organism is a skate while the scientific name is dipturus batis. The undersurface is dark grey with black spots or stripes and the uppersurface is more of a greenish brown color, often with lighter mottling . The snout is pointed and the flattened body has a round shape with sharp corners, and slightly concave outer edges to the wings. There is a row of 12 - 18 thorns along the tail. A average skate will grow from 205cm to 285cm in lenght. The skate is found mostly in eastern atlantic ocean and in the north by Norway and Iceland. Skates eat any kind of bottom dewelling organisms but prefer to eat fish. Mating occurs mainly in the spring and during copulation there is a distinct embrace between males and females. The female then lays oblong shaped egg capsules, which are anchored to the muddy or sandy tail by their stiff pointed horns. An individual will lay around 40 eggs a year. Males only reach sexual maturity once they have reached a length of 125 cm, which corresponds to around 10 years of age. The common skate is thought to live for as long as 50 years.
