Eagle ray

The eagle rays are a group of cartilaginous fishes in the family Myliobatidae, consisting mostly of large species living in the open ocean rather than on the sea bottom.

Eagle ray
Temporal range: 100.5–0 Ma Late Cretaceous to Recent[1]
Bull ray (Aetomylaeus bovinus)
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Chondrichthyes
Order: Myliobatiformes
Family: Myliobatidae
Bonaparte, 1838
Genera

Eagle rays feed on mollusks and crustaceans, crushing their shells with their flattened teeth.They are excellent swimmers and are able to breach the water up to several metres above the surface. Compared with other rays, they have long tails, and well-defined, rhomboidal bodies. They are ovoviviparous, giving birth to up to six young at a time. They range from 0.48 to 5.1 m (1.6 to 16.7 ft) in length and 7 m in wingspan (Mobula birostris).[1]

Classification

Nelson's book Fishes of the World treats cownose rays, mantas, and devil rays as subfamilies in the Myliobatidae. However, most authors (including William Toby White) have preferred to leave the Rhinopteridae and Mobulidae outside of the Myliobatidae.[2] White (2014) retained three genera (Aetobatus, Aetomylaeus, and Myliobatis) in the Myliobatidae, while a fourth (Pteromylaeus) was synoymized with Aetomylaeus.[2] A 2016 paper placed Aetobatus in its own family, the Aetobatidae.[3]

Aetomylaeus
Main article: Aetomylaeus

This obscure genus is distributed in the Eastern Atlantic Ocean, Indian Ocean, and Pacific Ocean. These rays were named because they lack a sting on the tail.[2]

Myliobatis
Main article: Myliobatis

The common eagle ray, M. aquila, is distributed throughout the Eastern Atlantic, including the Mediterranean Sea and the North Sea. Another important species is the bat eagle ray, M. californica, in the Pacific Ocean. These rays can grow extremely large, up to 1.8 m (6 ft) including the tail. The tail looks like a whip and may be as long as the body, and is armed with a sting. Eagle rays live close to the coast in depths of 1 to 30 m (3 to 98 ft) and in exceptional cases they are found as deep as 300 m (980 ft). The eagle ray is most commonly seen cruising along sandy beaches in very shallow waters, its two wings sometimes breaking the surface and giving the impression of two sharks traveling together.

gollark: HIGHLY currency.
gollark: Although that probably wouldn't be great because you want to protect people from attaining doublespent coins anyway.
gollark: You don't know which one was first.
gollark: But if two people get whatever you need to make the proof, you have apioforms because without a blockchain you can't timestamp them properly.
gollark: I mean, you could probably devise something where when someone gets a coin, they can publish a proof that they... got the coin.

See also

References
  1. Froese, R.; D., Pauly. "FAMILY Details for Myliobatidae - Eagle and manta rays". FishBase. World Wide Web electronic publication. Retrieved 15 August 2005.
  2. White, W. T. (2014). "A revised generic arrangement for the eagle ray family Myliobatidae, with definitions for the valid genera". Zootaxa. 3860 (2): 149–166. doi:10.11646/zootaxa.3860.2.3.
  3. White, W. T.; Naylor, G. J. P. (2016). "Resurrection of the family Aetobatidae (Myliobatiformes) for the pelagic eagle rays, genus Aetobatus". Zootaxa. 4139 (3): 435–438. doi:10.11646/zootaxa.4139.3.10.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.