Butterfly ray

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Butterfly rays
Smooth butterfly ray, Gymnura micrura
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Chordata Class: Chondrichthyes Subclass: Elasmobranchii Order: Rajiformes Family: Gymnuridae
Genera
Aetoplatea Gymnura See text for species.

The butterfly rays are a family, Gymnuridae, of rays. They are characterized by an extremely broad disc and a very short tail.

[edit] Classification

McEachran et al. place the butterfly rays in the subfamily Gymnurinae of the family Dasyatidae,^[1] but this article follows FishBase and ITIS in treating them as a family.^[2][3]

There are fourteen species in two genera:

• Genus Aetoplatea
  • Tentacled butterfly ray, Aetoplatea tentaculata Müller & Henle, 1841.
  • Zonetail butterfly ray, Aetoplatea zonura Bleeker, 1852.
• Genus Gymnura
  • Gymnura afuerae (Hildebrand, 1946).
  • Spiny butterfly ray, Gymnura altavela (Linnaeus, 1758).
  • Australian butterfly ray, Gymnura australis (Ramsay & Ogilby, 1886).
  • Twin-spot butterfly ray, Gymnura bimaculata (Norman, 1925).
  • Longsnout butterfly ray, Gymnura crebripunctata (Peters, 1869).
  • Gymnura crooki Fowler, 1934.
  • Madeira butterfly ray, Gymnura hirundo (Lowe, 1843).
  • Japanese butterfly ray, Gymnura japonica (Temminck & Schlegel, 1850).
  • California butterfly ray, Gymnura marmorata (Cooper, 1864).
  • Smooth butterfly ray, Gymnura micrura (Bloch & Schneider, 1801).
  • Backwater butterfly ray, Gymnura natalensis (Gilchrist & Thompson, 1911).
  • Longtail butterfly ray, Gymnura poecilura (Shaw, 1804).

[edit] References

1. ^ J. D. McEachran, K. A. Dunn & T. Miyake (1996). "Interrelationships of the batoid fishes (Chondrichthyes: Batoidea)", in M. L. Stiassny, L. R. Parenti & G. D. Johnson (editors): Interrelationships of Fishes. Academic Press. 
2. ^ "Gymnuridae". FishBase. Ed. Ranier Froese and Daniel Pauly. January 2006 version. N.p.: FishBase, 2006.
3. ^ Gymnuridae (TSN 564010). Integrated Taxonomic Information System. Accessed on 27 March 2006.