 The first known sixgill stingray , an intact female 64 cm ( 25 in ) across , was found on a beach near Port Elizabeth , South Africa . It was described as a new species and placed in its own family by Phillip Heemstra and Margaret Smith , in a 1980 article for the Ichthyological Bulletin of the J. L. B. Smith Institute of Ichthyology . The generic name Hexatrygon is derived from the Greek hexa ( " six " ) and trygon ( " stingray " ) , referring to the number of gill slits . The specific name bickelli honors Dave Bickell , a journalist who discovered the original specimen . 
