Plesiobatis/Urotrygon daviesi (Deepwater stingray)

(Wallace, 1967)

Life > Eukaryotes > Opisthokonta > Metazoa (animals) > Bilateria > Deuterostomia > Chordata > Craniata > Vertebrata (vertebrates)  > Gnathostomata (jawed vertebrates) > Chondrichthyes > Elasmobranchii > Batoidei >  Myliobatoidei  >  Plesiobatididae

Plesiobatis/Urotrygon daviesi (Deepwater stingray) [Illustration by Ann Hecht ©]

Identification

A giant plain deepwater stingray with a broadly pointed snout, round disk, small eyes, short tail with a long, leaflike caudal fin, a long narrow sting, and upper surface covered by small denticles. Colour grey-black to brownish or purplish-brown above, white below, rear edges of pelvics and tail grey and disk edges black, sting light.

Size

To 2.7 m TL and 1.5 m DW.

Range

East coast, northern Natal and southern Mozambique; Western Indian Ocean and West-Central Pacific.

Habitat

Outer shelf and upper slope on the bottom at 44 to 600 m depth.

Biology

Virtually unknown. Eats small pelagic fishes.

Human Impact

Probably caught by trawlers off Mozambique and Natal.

Text by Leonard J.V. Compagno, David A. Ebert and Malcolm J. Smale