Rays
Silo of rays and other batoids, the flattened cousins of sharks.
🌊 0–1000 m (known range of the family)
- 🌊Atlantic Ocean
- 🌊Indian Ocean
- 🌊Pacific Ocean
- 🌊Mediterranean Sea
- 🪸Coral reef
- 🪸High seas / open water
- 🪸Mangroves
Common torpedo
Torpedo torpedo
Common torpedo
A living 'battery' ray that immobilizes its prey in a fraction of a second with a discharge of up to 200 volts.
🌊 2–70 m
- ⚡ Generates its own electric shocks, up to 200 volts, to stun prey and deter predators
- ⚡ Detects hidden, even buried, prey through electroreception
Giant manta ray
Mobula birostris
Giant manta ray
The largest ray in the world, a peaceful filter feeder with a brain proportionally among the largest of all fish, able to recognise itself in a mirror in the laboratory.
🌊 0–1000 m
- ⚡ One of the few fish to pass a mirror self-recognition test in the laboratory
- ⚡ A brain proportionally among the largest of all fish
Sawfish
Pristis pristis
Sawfish
A sacred figure of the Dreamtime in several Aboriginal cultures of northern Australia, where its saw-shaped rostrum is said to have carved the course of certain rivers, it is today one of the most endangered fish families in the world.
🌊 0–40 m
- ⚡ Its rostrum acts as both a slashing weapon and an ultra-sensitive electrical radar
- ⚡ Can tolerate both salt and fresh water, sometimes travelling very far up rivers
Spotted eagle ray
Aetobatus ocellatus
Spotted eagle ray
Gliding like a silent flight over the sand with wings dotted in white, this ray unearths molluscs and crustaceans with a single sweep of its duck-like snout.
🌊 1–80 m
- ⚡ A sensory 'radar' in its snout that can detect prey buried under the sand
- ⚡ Leaps clear out of the water that can exceed a meter in height