Check out This Flapping Its Way Across a Reef. a Pancake-Shaped Body
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ray, flapping its way Check out this across a reef. A pancake-shaped body might seem strange to you, but for a ray, T is it’s flat-out fantastic! FLA wh t by Kathy Kranking ere t’s a ! So, what exactly is a ray? i A ray is a kind of fish. Rays are very close cousins of sharks. As a matter of fact, if you could flatten out a shark with a rolling pin, you’d have a ray! (Almost, anyway.) There are about 630 species of rays, and, though some of them live in freshwater, most live in the ocean. Depending on the species, rays are found in cold waters, warm waters, along coasts, or far offshore. A flat body works great for the way most rays live. To find out why, turn the page! A round ribbontail ray glides over a coral reef, flapping its side fins like wings. 6 REINHARD DIRSCHERL/SEAPICS.COM 7 Rays sometimes jump right out of the water, as the mobula (MAH-byoo-luh) ray at right is doing. Scientists don’t know for sure why a ray jumps. But some reasons may be to attract a mate or to get rid of tiny pests on its skin. eye ray breathed through its mouth when it was bur- ied, it would get a mouth- This marble ray is eating a fishy ful of sand! So instead, it meal. It uses special sensors draws water in through around its mouth to help it zero in two openings on the top of its on prey. body, called spiracles (SPEER-uh- kuhlz). (You can see a spiracle be- hind the eye of the ray on pages 6–7.) As water flows into a ray’s SCUBAZOO/SCIENCE SOURCE (T) ; gillWATCH slits IT! spiracles, the ray absorbs oxygen MICHAEL AW/SEAPICS.COM (B) nostril from the water. Then the water goes back out through the ray’s Reef manta rays tail gill slits, which are on the bottom sometimes form of its body (see photo at left). “feeding chains,” swimming in a line Big Mouths, Tiny Food to feed on clouds Some kinds of rays spend more of tiny creatures. mouth time swimming around in open As the rays swim, water rather than lying on the the creatures get swept into their bottom. A number of these free- big, open mouths. From the bottom, this spotted DOUG PERRINE/NATUREPL.COM ; CHRISTOPHER SWANN/SEAPICS.COM (INSET) swimmers will gobble up fish as eagle ray seems to have a funny like fins to stir up sand on the they swim and also search for face. But the “face” is really just are on the top of its bottom. Then they gobble up food such as shrimp or clams on the ray’s nostrils and mouth. body, so it can still see uncovered prey. Most rays the bottom. But other free-swim- what’s going on when have rows of flat teeth for mers eat only plankton, tiny the rest of its body is buried. crushing their crunchy food. creatures that drift along in the Built for the Bottom The ray’s mouth, though, is water. Plankton-eating rays have A ray spends a lot of time located on the bottom of its Breathin’ Easy their big, wide mouths at the on the ocean floor, so its flat body. So the ray can easily A ray’s body plan also works front of their bodies—the better body comes in very handy. hunt by gliding its flat body great when it comes to breath- for sucking in lots of plankton The ray can lie there, partly along the bottom, gobbling up ing. Most fish get oxygen from as the rays swim along. And buried in sand, and be hidden clams, oysters, shrimp, and water as it flows through their plankton-eaters usually breathe from enemies as well as from other prey as it goes. Rays mouths and then back out through their mouths rather prey it may snatch. Its eyes also hunt by using their wing- through their gills. But if a than through spiracles. 8 This Uptisgiant mantaaut abora ray has hitiate num aperfer ovitio. Baby Flatties A yellow stingray is giving Nequam quatur accae arum lots ofLorem company: invendus a curiousapedignis pe- Some kinds of fish hatch birth to two babies at the scuba diver, two gray event ent.0volupit que experit same time! See their tails? rio verro cus net pro berum from eggs, and some kinds remorasse eatemoluptia hitching a duciliae.ride on Sam, atuscietur? Em explam volo- its body, and a red fish come out live from their moth- solupta turibus que soles as riatiam arios et remporercid. that’s eating bits of ers. Rays do both! After mating, foodrera from consed the et ipsus dolo- a female ray has an egg (or eggs, ray’srumquas skin. etur aliquia dolup- Pra ella borum depending on the species) inside tatis aut alibuscil int autem Modior minimil ipis nation- her body, in which a baby ray nus et erovid ma dolore pre secte libus mi, omnihilibus grows. When the time is right, volupta tatquias audit reptio qui alis resteni minisque the baby hatches from the egg quis sae et aliam fugitate nam sime nullorrovit inside the mom. It continues eseque con eos alite molorit mo quatur mos di cum growing, and then later the mom molupta epudis adipsus es in volupta tquatiu nder pushes the baby out of her body. nos sinciti untium qui omni- rores abor solupta si The new ray swims off to begin life on its own! Rays sometimes gather in big schools—just as these cownose rays are doing. It may be to migrate, to mate, or just to find food. A single school may have tens of thousands of rays! one of many families of rays. its back with room to spare! Most rays are completely That’s the famous giant manta An Array of Rays harmless. ray. This big ray has a big When people hear the Rays come in different sizes, mouth, but it eats tiny plank- word “ray,” they often think of shapes, and colors. (See the ton—sometimes as much as stingrays. Stingrays have ven- variety of rays below.) The 60 pounds a day. Like other omous barbs at the base of smallest ray is the size of a plankton-eating rays, mantas their tails. If they feel threat- pancake. And the largest is have flipper-like fins that they ened, they can give a painful so big that three grownups use to channel food toward sting. But stingrays are just could lie head-to-toe across their mouths. LUIS JAVIER SANDOVAL/V&W/SEAPICS.COM (10T); D.R. SCHRICHTE/ SEAPICS.COM (10BL); DOUG PERRINE/SEAPICS.COM (10BC, 10-11B); JEFF ROTMAN (11TR); DAVID FLEETHAM/TOM STACK & ASSOC. (11M); STEPHEN KAJIURA/SEAPICS.COM (11BC); etty RAY KEVIN DEACON/MINDEN PICTURES (11BR) Pr S All in w lesser electric ray a Ro Atlantic stingray spotted eagle ray southern fiddler ray southern eagle ray 10.