A manta ray, meanwhile, is actually a type of stingray. Another difference: A stingray's mouth is found on the underside of its body, while the mouth of the manta ray is located along the front edge. If it all sounds confusing, don't worry. Once you become more familiar with these two sea creatures, it can be easy to spot the difference.
To help, here are seven fun facts that will help you tell the two apart, as well as give you additional insight into both species. In fact, the smallest is the short-nose electric ray, which grow to just shy of 4 inches 10 centimeters across.
Manta rays are filter feeders, meaning they consume plankton like fish eggs, krill and other tiny floating animals, while stingrays prey on fish, gastropods, crustaceans and other small animals. Most stingrays use flat teeth to crush the hard shells of animals such as crabs and clams, adds McCombs. Manta rays, however, use their cephalic lobes to direct small food items into their mouths. They live in the open ocean and don't spend time resting on the seafloor," she says.
Manta rays use the same sense to help them find plankton suspended in the water column. Manta rays also frequent cleaning stations, where they hover silently above a reef and allow smaller cleaner fish to remove parasites from their body. They use their large size and speed as their form of defense — they are able to quickly flee from any potential predators, although they have few natural predators.
What should you do if you still happen to get stung by one? Recent studies of manta rays have even suggested that they may possess self-awareness. When swimming past a mirror, their method of interacting with the mirror suggests that they realize they are seeing themselves, and not another manta ray.
Many stingrays including manta rays swim alone and only socialize with others during breeding and migration. But when it's time to mate, manta rays make it interesting. The female is able to store the sperm for many years, only fertilizing the egg when conditions are optimal. Stingrays are often fished for their fins and meat. They also are often caught as bycatch, or unintended catch, during the fishing of other animals, according to McCombs.
Although they are related, stingrays and manta rays still have several differences. Manta rays do not have the infamous barb found on their tails, while stingrays utilize the barb as a defense mechanism. Manta rays have a wide mouth found at the front edge of their bodies with cephalic lobes specialized, flap-like appendages on either side that help funnel plankton and other small organisms into their mouths for filter feeding.
This feeding method is ideal for manta rays as they spend their time in coastal and pelagic waters where they can swim through the water column collecting tiny marine organisms. Stingrays have a mouth on the underside of their bodies that is strong enough to crush clams and crustaceans that they find along the bottom of the ocean in coastal waters.
They are not mammals. As mentioned, both stingrays and manta rays are cartilaginous fish like sharks. This means they do not have bones and their skeletal structures are made primarily of cartilage. There are two species of mantas, giant manta rays and reef manta rays. When referring to manta rays most people are talking about the giant manta rays. These gentle giants of the ocean have become a popular tourist attraction because they allow divers and snorkelers to swim with them.
Size: The giant manta ray is the biggest of all rays and can have a wing span of up to 29 feet , be up to 23 feet long, and weigh up to pounds! Range: Manta rays are migratory and can be found worldwide. They can survive in cooler waters as low as F but prefer warmer waters. Diet: Manta rays are filter feeders and eat plankton almost exclusively, but may also eat other tiny marine organisms including small fish and crustaceans.
Manta rays are completely harmless, unless you are plankton. You may see conflicting info about whether or not mantas have teeth, but they actually do have hundreds of teeth they just never use them. You can even snorkel or dive with mantas in places like Hawaii, which I have actually done myself! It was an amazing experience, there were times that one was mere inches from my face.
0コメント