Sunday, July 27, 2014

Manta ray: Wikipedia Phone App Featured Article

Manta rays are large eagle rays belonging to the genus Manta. The larger species, M. birostris, reaches 7 m (23 ft 0 in) in width while the smaller, M. alfredi, reaches 5.5 m (18 ft 1 in). Both have triangular pectoral fins, horn-shaped cephalic fins and large, forward-facing mouths. They are classified among the Elasmobranchii (sharks and rays) and are placed in the eagle ray family, Myliobatidae."

Mantas are found in temperate, subtropical and tropical waters. Both species are pelagic; M. birostris migrates across open oceans, singly or in groups, while M. alfredi tends to be resident and coastal. They are filter feeders and eat large quantities of zooplankton, which they swallow with their open mouths as they swim. Gestation lasts over a year, producing live pups. Mantas may visit cleaning stations for the removal of parasites. Like whales, they breach, for unknown reasons." (read more)


7 comments:

ricpic said...

"Like whales, they breach for unknown reasons."

Exuberance.

deborah said...

Nice changeup, Lem :)

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

Thanks Deb.

Chip Ahoy said...

Colonel Ray used to take me fishing. He patiently taught me many fishing related things. Like where big mouth bass like to hang out, and how to bother them into taking your bait just to get rid of the annoyance.

He used to watch golf on teevee which I found ridiculously dull. On the other hand, as kids we could make a lot of dinero caddying and wading and swimming into the ponds retrieving golf balls by the score and selling them back to the golfers. It was a thing.

edutcher said...

When The Blonde and I were staying in Puerto Vallarta, we took a snorkeling excursion on a catamaran.

As we made our way to a marine sanctuary, we could see a ray with a wingspread as big as the length of the boat swim underneath it.

They can be very big.

Paddy O said...

I was snorkeling and had a manta swim right under me. Very amazing.

The Dude said...

Oh, manta ray!
Never mind...