Common eagle ray
| Common eagle ray | ||||||||||||
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Common eagle ray ( Myliobatis aquila ) |
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| Systematics | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Myliobatis aquila | ||||||||||||
| ( Linnaeus , 1758) |
The common eagle ray ( Myliobatis aquila ) is a species of ray that occurs near the coast in the eastern Atlantic at depths of one to 100 meters. The exact distribution area includes the southern and western coasts of the British Isles and extends over the Bay of Biscay , Madeira , Morocco and the Canary Islands to South Africa. He also inhabits the Mediterranean . In the North Sea he is a rare stray visitor in the summer months. It is the most common eagle ray.
features
The common eagle ray with its long, whip-like tail reaches a length of 1.50 to 1.85 meters. The body disc with the wide, wing-like fins becomes 85 cm wide. The head, torso and pectoral fins create a diamond-like shape. The head is short and rounded, the upper and lower jaw are each covered with seven rows of flat teeth, which together form a plate-shaped chewing apparatus. The cartilaginous fish are brownish or blackish on top and unpatterned. The ventral side is white. On its first third, just behind the small dorsal fin, the tail has a barbed spine. A caudal fin is missing. While the primitive guitar fish , as well as the sawfish and the jitter Roche-like move around like most sharks by strain snaking of the body and the tail fin and the genuine rays get around by undulating movements of their large pectoral fins, Common strike eagle rays as all the other eagle rays like birds with their wings with the enlarged pectoral fins.
Way of life
The common eagle ray usually lives in groups near the coast in shallow lagoons, bays and estuaries, but also on the high seas. It feeds mainly on bottom-dwelling crustaceans , molluscs and fish. It can do a lot of damage on oyster banks . Like all eagle rays, it is ovoviviparous . The 3 to 7 young rays are born after a gestation period of 6 to 8 months.
literature
- Bent J. Muus, Jørgen G. Nielsen: The marine fish of Europe in the North Sea, Baltic Sea and Atlantic. Kosmos, Stuttgart 1999, ISBN 3-440-07804-3 .
Web links
- Common eagle ray on Fishbase.org (English)
- Myliobatis aquila inthe IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2013.1. Posted by: Holtzhausen, JA, Ebert, DA, Serena, F. & Mancusi, C., 2009. Retrieved November 3, 2013.