Megatrygon microps
| Megatrygon microps | ||||||||||||
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Megatrygon microps |
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| Scientific name of the genus | ||||||||||||
| Megatrygon | ||||||||||||
| Last et al., 2016 | ||||||||||||
| Scientific name of the species | ||||||||||||
| Megatrygon microps | ||||||||||||
| ( Annandale , 1908) |
Megatrygon microps is a species of ray and lives in the Indo-Pacific between Mozambique , India and northern Australia .
features
Megatrygon microps has a diamond-shaped pectoral fin disc that is about one and a half times as wide as it is long and reaches widths of up to 2.2 m. At the sides the disc runs out at a flat angle, towards the muzzle it is rounded with a small protruding point. The tail is slightly shorter than the disc, the front part wide and flat up to a poison sting, the rear part like a whip. The top is brown to reddish brown, darker towards the tail. The underside is white.
Way of life
The ray lives on coasts in reefs and estuaries as well as in the pelagic . Details about the habitat and prey animals are not known. It is ovoviviparous , the females usually only give birth to a single young animal with a disc width of 31 to 33 cm. It is occasionally brought in as bycatch by longline , beam trawl and purse seine fishermen . Exact inventory figures are not available, which is why its endangered status is rated by the IUCN as DD (data deficit). Because it lives at greater depths, it is probably less threatened than other species by the fishing of its habitat.
Systematics
The ray species was described in 1908 by the British zoologist Nelson Annandale under the scientific name Trygon microps , later assigned to the genus Dasyatis . In a revision of the Dasyatidae in mid-2016 , the species was placed in the genus monotypical Megatrygon . It is the sister species of a clade that is formed from Styracura schmardae , the freshwater stingray (Potamotrygonidae) and the American round stingray (Urotrygonidae). The species is only provisionally assigned to the Dasyatidae.
Web links
- Megatrygon microps on Fishbase.org (English)
- Megatrygon microps at the IUCN Red List (engl.)
- Video recording from Megatrygon microps ( BBC ; engl.)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Last, P. R., Naylor, G. J. P. & Manjaji-Matsumoto, B. M. (2016): A revised classification of the family Dasyatidae (Chondrichthyes: Myliobatiformes) based on new morphological and molecular insights. Zootaxa , 4139 (3): 345-368; doi: 10.11646 / zootaxa.4139.3.2 (English).