The
butterfly rays are a group of
raysBatoidea is a superorder of cartilaginous fish containing more than 500 described species in thirteen families. They are commonly known as rays, but that term is also used specifically for batoids in the order Rajiformes, the "true rays"...
in the family
Gymnuridae. They are found in warm oceans worldwide, and occasionally in
estuariesAn estuary is a semi-enclosed coastal body of water with one or more rivers or streams flowing into it, and with a free connection to the open sea. Estuaries are thus subject to both marine influences, such as tides, waves, and the influx of saline water; and riverine influences, such as flows of...
.
The body of butterfly rays is flattened and surrounded by an extremely broad disc formed by the pectoral fins, which merge in front of the head. They have a very short, thread-like, tail. They range from to in body length.
McEachran et al.
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The
butterfly rays are a group of
raysBatoidea is a superorder of cartilaginous fish containing more than 500 described species in thirteen families. They are commonly known as rays, but that term is also used specifically for batoids in the order Rajiformes, the "true rays"...
in the family
Gymnuridae. They are found in warm oceans worldwide, and occasionally in
estuariesAn estuary is a semi-enclosed coastal body of water with one or more rivers or streams flowing into it, and with a free connection to the open sea. Estuaries are thus subject to both marine influences, such as tides, waves, and the influx of saline water; and riverine influences, such as flows of...
.
The body of butterfly rays is flattened and surrounded by an extremely broad disc formed by the pectoral fins, which merge in front of the head. They have a very short, thread-like, tail. They range from to in body length.
McEachran et al. place the butterfly rays in the subfamily Gymnurinae of the family Dasyatidae, but this article follows
FishBaseFishBase is a comprehensive database of information about fish. , it included descriptions of over 30,000 species, over 260,000 common names in hundreds of languages, over 46,000 pictures, and references to more than 42,000 works in the scientific literature....
and
ITISItis may refer to* Integrated Taxonomic Information System * -itis, an English suffix typically used to denote an inflammation* "The Itis" , an episode of the TV series The Boondocks...
in treating them as a family.
Aetoplatea
This genus is distinguished from
Gymnura by having a small
dorsal finA dorsal fin is a fin located on the backs of some fish, whales, dolphins, and porpoises, as well as the ichthyosaurs. Depending on the species, an animal can have up to three of them. Its main purpose is to stabilize the animal against rolling and assist in sudden turns...
.
- Tentacled butterfly ray, Aetoplatea tentaculata Müller
Johannes Peter Müller , was a German physiologist, comparative anatomist, and ichthyologist not only known for his discoveries but also for his ability to synthesize knowledge.-Life:Müller was born in Koblenz....
& HenleFriedrich Gustav Jakob Henle was a German physician, pathologist and anatomist. He is credited with the discovery of the loop of Henle in the kidney. His essay "On Miasma and Contagia" was an early argument for the germ theory of disease...
, 1841
- Zonetail butterfly ray
The zonetail butterfly ray is a species of fish in the Gymnuridae family. It is found in India, Indonesia, Singapore, and Thailand. Its natural habitats are open seas, shallow seas, subtidal aquatic beds, and estuarine waters....
, Aetoplatea zonura BleekerPieter Bleeker was a Dutch medical doctor and ichthyologist, famous for his work on the fishes of East Asia....
, 1852
Gymnura
This genus differs from
Aetoplatea in lacking a dorsal fin.
FossilFossils are the preserved remains or traces of animals, plants, and other organisms from the remote past. The totality of fossils, both discovered and undiscovered, and their placement in fossiliferous rock formations and sedimentary layers is known as the fossil record...
s of this genus are known back to the
CenomanianThe Cenomanian is, in the ICS' geological timescale the oldest or earliest age of the Late Cretaceous epoch or the lowest stage of the Upper Cretaceous series. An age is a unit of geochronology: it is a unit of time; the stage is a unit in the stratigraphic column deposited during the corresponding...
.
- Gymnura afuerae (Hildebrand, 1946)
- Spiny butterfly ray
The spiny butterfly ray or giant butterfly ray, Gymnura altavela, is a species of butterfly ray, family Gymnuridae, native to the shallow coastal waters of the Atlantic Ocean. A large ray that can measure over 2 meters across, it may be distinguished from the sympatric smooth butterfly ray The...
, Gymnura altavela (LinnaeusCarl Linnaeus was a Swedish botanist, physician, and zoologist, who laid the foundations for the modern scheme of binomial nomenclature...
, 1758)
- Australian butterfly ray, Gymnura australis (Ramsay & Ogilby
William Ogilby was an Irish barrister and naturalist.Ogilby was honorary secretary of the Zoological Society of London from 1839 to 1846....
, 1886)
- Twin-spot butterfly ray, Gymnura bimaculata (Norman, 1925)
- Longsnout butterfly ray, Gymnura crebripunctata (Peters
Wilhelm Karl Hartwich Peters was a German naturalist and explorer.He was assistant to Johannes Peter Müller and later curator of the Berlin Zoological Museum. In September 1842 he travelled to Mozambique via Angola. He returned to Berlin with an enormous collection of natural history specimens...
, 1869)
- Gymnura crooki Fowler, 1934
- Madeira butterfly ray, Gymnura hirundo (Lowe, 1843)
- Japanese butterfly ray, Gymnura japonica (Temminck
Coenraad Jacob Temminck was a Dutch aristocrat and zoologist.Temminck was the first director of the National Natural History Museum at Leiden from 1820 until his death. His Manuel d'ornithologie, ou Tableau systematique des oiseaux qui se trouvent en Europe was the standard work on European birds...
& SchlegelHermann Schlegel was a German ornithologist.-Early life and education:Schlegel was born at Altenburg, the son of a brassfounder. His father collected butterflies, which stimulated Schlegel's interest in natural history...
, 1850)
- California butterfly ray
The California butterfly ray is a species of fish in the Gymnuridae family. It is found in Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru, and the United States...
, Gymnura marmorata (Cooper, 1864)
- Smooth butterfly ray
The smooth butterfly ray is a species of fish in the Gymnuridae family. It is found in Belize, Brazil, Cameroon, Colombia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Costa Rica, French Guiana, Gambia, Guatemala, Guyana, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Suriname, Trinidad and...
, Gymnura micrura (BlochMarcus Elieser Bloch was a German medical doctor and naturalist. He is generally considered one of the most important ichthyologists of the 18th century.- Life :...
& SchneiderJohann Gottlob Theaenus Schneider was a German classicist and naturalist.Schneider was born at Koilmen in Saxony...
, 1801)
- Backwater butterfly ray
The backwater butterfly ray, butterfly ray, diamond ray, or short-tailed ray is a species of fish in the Gymnuridae family. It is found in Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, possibly Kenya, and possibly Tanzania. Its natural habitats are open seas, shallow seas, estuarine waters, and coastal...
, Gymnura natalensis (Gilchrist & Thompson, 1911)
- Longtail butterfly ray
The longtail butterfly ray, Gymnura poecilura, is a species of butterfly ray, family Gymnuridae. It has a wide but apparently non-continuous distribution in the Indo-West Pacific, occurring in the Red Sea, Somalia, and Oman, and from Pakistan to Indonesia to southern Japan. There is also an...
, Gymnura poecilura (Shaw, 1804)