#stingray post

The Sixgill Stingray is a heavy-bodied fish. Described only in 1980, it is unique among rays in having six pairs of gill slits rather than five. This ray can grow up to lengths of 5.6 ft and is one of few species that gives live birth, with litters of two to five pups.

*Last one and it's kind of a bummer, because there's literally no information on it🙃*

The Rosette River Stingray is also regularly known as the Flower Stingray. It is a freshwater stingray that can be found in the rivers of Northern South America. They are aptly named for the floral design on their disc, which blends in well with sandy river bottoms.

The Porcupine Ray has long been valued for its rough and durable skin, which was made into a shagreen leather once used for various utilitarian and ornamental purposes, such as to cover sword hilts and shields. When feeding, it plows deeply into the bottom, expelling excess sediment from its spiracles in a plume visible from a long distance away.

*these are starting to get away from me 😅 whoops. Here's the actual fact*

The Tiger River Ray is a species of freshwater ray. This endangered species is endemic to black- and whitewater rivers in the upper Amazon basin in northeastern Peru. So little is known about its population and reproductive habits that it is impossible to say what its status is in the wild.

The Xingu River Ray is a venomous stingray that contains venom localized at its dentine spine in its tail. While the ray's venom composition does not change with maturation, the venom toxicity decreases as rays get older. On the other hand, rays' jaw shape, stiffness, and mineralization are strengthened with age, which allows mature rays the ability to consume hard-shelled invertebrates. These changes in traits with maturation reflect the different pressures rays experience in terms of functions such as feeding and avoiding predation during different maturity stages.

And you thought the Spotted Eagle Ray was pretty! 😍

Although the Ornate Eagle Ray is the largest of all eagle ray species, they are extremely rare, with few records from fisheries and a limited number of sightings in the wild. There have been fewer than 60 confirmed sightings of the ornate eagle ray and they are often referred to as the unicorn of the sea. The majority of encounters are recorded from Australia and the Indo-West Pacific region.

There is very little that is known about the Banded Eagle Ray despite that it is plentiful in many seas around Eurasia. The seas/oceans where it presides include the Indo-West Pacific: Persian Gulf to the Philippines, north to Korea and southern Japan, south to northern Australia and possibly in the Red Sea, as well as eastern and southern Africa. 

Native to the shallow coastal waters of the Atlantic Ocean, the Spiny Butterfly Ray is a large ray that can measure over 6 ft 7 in across, it may be distinguished from the smooth butterfly ray by the spine at the base of its tail and by a small tentacular structure on the margin of each spiracle.