Species introduction

general situation

Manta rays (fü fè n) are generally flat [1], with a maximum width of 8m and a weight of 3000kg. The body plate is rhombic with one end wide and flat; The snout is wide and flat; The pectoral fin looks like a wing, and the pectoral fin in front of the head differentiates into two prominent head fins, which are located on both sides of the head; The tail is slender as a whip, the dorsal fin is small, and some species have one or more stingers on their tails; Mouth wide, front or lower; Teeth are thin and numerous, arranged like stones. The upper and lower jaws have teeth or the upper jaw has no teeth; The nose is in front of the mouth.

Photo album of manta rays (40 photos)

On the side, the water outlet is opened at the corner of the mouth; The spray hole is small and triangular, located behind the eyes, with a considerable distance from the eyes; Branchial pore width; The belt is deeply curved with a sharp extension in the middle. There are viviparous fossils from tertiary to modern times.

Manta rays are cartilaginous fish that live in tropical and subtropical waters. It is called "underwater demon" by local people, but actually manta rays are very docile animals. They mainly feed on plankton and small fish and often cruise around coral reefs for food. It flaps its wings slowly and swims leisurely in the sea, sucking plankton and other tiny creatures into its mouth with its front fins and horns. When swimming, the head fin rolls at an angle from the bottom to the outside and faces forward; Sometimes swimming in groups, men and women often walk together. They mainly eat planktonic crustaceans, followed by groups of small fish. Gill harrow is diversified and presents a series of pinnate sieve plates, which play the role of filtering water and retaining food.

trait

Manta rays are the largest species of manta rays. Although it is not aggressive, when it is disturbed,

Morphological characteristics (3 sheets)

It's powerful enough to destroy the ship. Its size and strength often make divers afraid, because once it gets angry, it will break people's bones and kill people with a clap of its powerful "wings". Manta rays are strange, too. He is very lively and often plays some practical jokes. Sometimes it deliberately dives into the bottom of the ship sailing in the sea, slaps the bottom of the ship with its wings, and makes a "sou, pa" sound, which makes people on board terrified; Sometimes it runs to the side of a ship moored in the sea, hangs the meat horn on the ship's anchor chain and pulls out a small iron anchor, which makes people feel at a loss; Or it hangs itself on the anchor chain of the ship with its head fin and drags the ship around the sea quickly, making fishermen mistakenly think that this is a "devil", but it is actually a practical joke of manta rays.

The smallest manta ray is Australia's stingless manta ray (Mobula diadios), which is less than 60 cm (2 feet) wide. Manta rays are the largest species in the Atlantic Ocean, with a width of 7 meters (23 feet). Black or brown, strong but harmless.

The "tail" of manta rays (devil fish) may be weak in current but not toxic, while the "tail" of rays with similar shapes is highly toxic, so we should pay attention to the distinction to avoid misunderstanding.

external

It has two fleshy feet on its head, and these are its head fins. The head fin turns forward and protrudes freely. Manta rays use these head fins to drive away food.

Morphological characteristics of manta rays (40 photos)

Things, and put the food in your mouth to swallow. In English, it is wrongly called "devil fish", mainly because of its terrible shape. When manta rays swim, they flap their triangular pectoral fins and drag their hard slender tails, just like flying in the water. Adult manta rays can reach 7 meters in length and weigh 5000 kilograms, but they can do spinning and jumping. As the rotation speed becomes faster and faster, manta rays quickly rise and jump out of the sea. Manta rays can generally jump out of the water 1.5 meters. During the breeding season, manta rays sometimes beat the water with their double fins and leap to somersault in the air.

classify

Nymphalidae butterflies and manta rays;

Several species of the genus manta in manta family.

Tickets for Manta Map (4 tickets)

, Taiwan Province manta (Mobula formosana), Japanese manta (Mobula japonica).

The genus Manta (also called ghost manta) of Manta family is still under study. At present, only three species have been found: Manta (note: in one classification, Manta is classified as Manta family, while in another classification, Manta and Manta are So sometimes they become independent families, but most of them will merge with exclusive fish. [2]

biological property

Manta rays mainly live in tropical and subtropical shallow waters.

It rarely stays or inhabits the seabed, and its range of activities ranges from the surface water near the coast to the seawater at a depth of 120 meters.

Look at their bodies. Manta rays are usually quiet and peaceful, like to swim alone in the sea and live a wandering life in the world. Moreover, they have no territorial behavior and aggression, and they never attack other marine animals. When two manta rays meet, they are indifferent, and when they meet divers, they often leave shyly. However, some curious individuals are attracted by the bubbles exhaled by oxygen cylinders and like to be touched by humans-this is completely different from the notoriety of "devil fish".

Manta rays are big, but they feed on plankton, crustaceans and small fish. They are opportunists and eat wherever they go. When they find an area rich in food, they will swim back and forth in a straight line and concentrate the food in a relatively narrow area. The rotatable head fins on their heads play a greater role in predation than teeth, and they can easily ingest a large number of plankton into their mouths.

Eccentric behavior

One of the most distinctive habits of manta rays is its jumping stunt of "flying into the sky"! According to the observation of scientists,

Eccentric behavior

Manta rays need to do a series of preparatory work before jumping out of the sea: they rise in a rotating swimming posture in the sea, and speed up their rotation and swimming speed while approaching the sea surface until they jump out of the water, sometimes accompanied by beautiful somersaults. The maximum jumping height is 1.5-2 meters, and it makes a loud noise when falling into the water. The scene is beautiful and spectacular.

So, why do manta rays jump out of the sea? Scientists have made various speculations about this behavior, and there are still different opinions today. Some people say that this is a flirting game played by male and female manta rays during the breeding season; Others think it is a way to drive away and trap food: most people think it is a self-cleaning way to remove parasites and dead skin; But I learned from extra-curricular books that this behavior is unique to female manta rays during childbirth. Many mysteries about manta rays remain to be observed and studied in the future.

Related pictures (7 photos)

Manta rays with brilliant motherhood

On the coast of South America, the moon is bright and calm, and a boat is slowly moving forward. Suddenly, from the water

Jump in the air

Fly out of the same monster, dark, bigger than a round desktop! The people on board haven't seen its true face yet. It has fallen into the water and disappeared. But after a while, the monster emerged from the sea and rose into the air, which revealed its truth; This is a strange bat-like fish with a flat body. Like raccoons, developed pectoral fins, like bat wings, dragging a long tail behind them. The strangest thing is that there are a pair of "horns" on the head. Actually, they are not horns, but fins.

The head fin of manta rays is not an ornament, but a chopstick: it usually preys on microorganisms and plankton, and the head fin can help form a water flow so that microorganisms can smoothly slide into their mouths along the water flow.

Some fishermen are not familiar with the habits of this fish, and sometimes they are killed; The fisherman on a small fishing boat found a fish with a head fin and threw it into the net excitedly. This is trouble! I saw a huge fish, also with a pair of head fins, soaring upward like flying, and immediately came to the top of Mount Tai and fell to the ground. The long tail dragged the fisherman's body and fell into the water with a bang.

The fisherman let out a scream, and suddenly there was blood on his body, followed by a sharp pain. It turned out to be a

manta ray

A female manta ray is swimming with her only son. When she saw the danger, she jumped into the water to attack the enemy in order to protect her beloved only son. Its tail hides a terrible weapon-a sharp stinger, which will be very painful after being stabbed by it.

Once its mother overturned a small fishing boat in retaliation for catching a small manta ray.

A giant manta ray can reach 6 meters wide and weigh 500 kilograms. When it "flies" out of the water in the dark, the way it glides in the air is really terrible. No wonder abroad, people call it "the devil in the sea". Of course, its gliding ability is not as good as flying fish, but it can "fly" over the masthead of a small sailboat. This is not easy for this huge and bulky fish.

Manta rays sometimes glide to be bullied by their only son, sometimes they are hunted by the enemy, and sometimes there may be parasites at work, which makes them unbearable.

manta ray

Female manta rays take good care of their only son. Unlike other fish, it lays tens of thousands of eggs at a time. Like Mola, it can be said to be a high-yield expert in fish, which can produce up to 300 million eggs at a time. Female manta rays do not lay eggs, but lay eggs, which is rare in fish. It only gives birth to one child at a time. No wonder it dotes on its only son.

Little manta rays weigh 20 kilograms at birth and are about one meter long. People who don't know this kind of fish think it is a big fish at first glance, but it is actually a newborn baby.

The fierce shark also gave it three points.

According to experts, manta rays have lived in the ocean for 654.38 billion years and are the representatives of primitive fish. Although they are all big guys, they mainly feed on plankton and small fish, often cruise around coral reefs for food, and have a gentle temperament. Although they are not aggressive, they are powerful enough to destroy ships when disturbed. Manta rays seem to be able to make

manta ray

Life is horrible, but it is actually gentle, and it only feeds on crustaceans or groups of small fish and shrimp. It has two fleshy feet on its head, and these are its head fins. The head fin turns forward and protrudes freely. Manta rays use these head fins to drive away food and then swallow it into their mouths. Because of its huge muscle strength, even the fiercest sharks dare not attack it. Manta rays like to swim in groups, sometimes diving into the bottom of the sea, and sometimes surfacing in pairs. During the breeding season, manta rays sometimes beat the water with their double fins, jump up and somersault in the air, jump out of the water, and "slide" more than one person on the water. When falling into the water, the sound is like a cannon, stretching for miles, which is very spectacular. As for manta rays, why did they jump out of the water? It is still a mystery. Manta rays can be seen in the South China Sea all year round, and migrate to the coastal areas of Fujian and Zhejiang from June to July every year, and to the Yellow Sea from August to September. 65438+1October-165438+1October returned to the coast of Zhejiang, and moved south along the original route from February to February and March of the following year. Meat can be eaten, liver can be made into oil, and viscera and bones can be made into fish meal.

Species distribution

Manta's English name "Manta" comes from Spanish, which means blanket. Look at its figure.

You will know. Because its elegant swimming posture in the sea is similar to that of bats flying in the night sky, it got its Chinese name: manta rays. People who meet manta rays for the first time are always at a loss because of their "alien" appearance, and it is difficult for people to associate them with orthodox fish. In fact, this ancient fish appeared in the ocean as early as Mesozoic and Jurassic. For more than 654.38 billion years, their body shapes have hardly changed. Taxonomically speaking, manta rays and sharks have the closest genetic relationship, belonging to the class Chondrichthyes and the family Manta rays, with 3 genera 13 species, distributed in the Atlantic Ocean, the Pacific Ocean and the Indian Ocean between 35 degrees north and south latitude. Four species of manta rays can be seen in the eastern and southern waters of China: rays, Japanese rays, rays from Taiwan Province Province and stingless rays.

Growth and reproduction

The breeding period of manta rays is from February 65438 to April the following year. At this time, the water temperature in tropical waters is between 26 and 29 degrees Celsius, and manta rays in shallow waters begin to appear in groups. Usually, several smaller males follow the older females and swim a little faster than usual.

manta ray

. After 20-30 minutes of chasing, the female manta rays gradually slow down, while the male manta rays swim under their lover and "caress" their bodies with their pectoral fins. After a short mating, the male will walk away, and then the second suitor will repeat the above process. However, female manta rays only accept the pursuit of two "lovers" at most-1-2 fertilized eggs develop in females and hatch into larvae. After about 13 months, the young manta rays will be born directly from the mother, and will soon be able to swim freely and travel around the world alone. When young manta rays reach sexual maturity at the age of 5, people of appropriate age can continue their genes: their life span is about 20 years.

Because of the wide range of habitats, it is difficult to make statistics and investigations, and the wild number of manta rays has never been known. Manta rays have low reproductive rate and slow growth, but overfishing and habitat pollution will do harm to their populations. In order to protect manta rays, some producing areas have introduced measures such as banning fishing. I hope that humans can eliminate the misunderstanding of this kind of "gentle strange fish" as soon as possible, and their vigorous posture can appear more on the sea.

Morphological difference

The smallest manta rays are no more than 60 cm long, while the largest can exceed 7 meters. Like the Atlantic Ocean.

Blankets. Atlantic blanket rays are also called giant manta rays. They are so strong that even fierce sharks dare not do anything to them. Manta rays are also called blanket rays, which means devil fish in English. One is that people think their heads are too strange, and the other is that they will eat people. In fact, this is wronged them. Some species can be found in Fujian, Zhejiang and the Yellow Sea. Because they have the habit of migration, they will not be seen in one place all year round. Every year from June to July in the coastal areas of Fujian and Zhejiang, and from August to September in the Yellow Sea. 10 ~ 1 1 returned to the coast of Zhejiang in 10, and 12 moved south along the original route from February to March of the following year.

The role of drugs and food

Meat can be eaten, liver can be made into oil, and viscera and bones can be made into fish meal.

related news

20 12 On September 2nd, fishermen in Taizhou City, Zhejiang Province caught a manta ray named "Devil Fish" off the coast of Fujian Province. This fish weighs 2000 Jin, is huge, and its pectoral fin is nearly 8 meters long. Later, this manta ray was cut and transported to the market for sale.

according to

Captured manta rays (8 photos)

I understand that manta rays are called "underwater demons", but they are actually very docile animals. They mainly feed on plankton and small fish. There is a terrible weapon hidden in the tail-a sharp stinger, which hurts a lot after being stabbed by it. This ancient fish appeared in the ocean as early as Mesozoic and Jurassic. For more than 654.38 billion years, their body shapes have hardly changed. Manta rays with an average life span of 30 years can give birth to at most 16 young manta rays in a lifetime. In order to protect manta rays, some producing areas have introduced measures such as banning fishing. [3]

[4] Manta rays are easily overfished because of their long breeding cycle. It takes 8 to 10 years for manta rays to reach sexual maturity. A manta ray with an average life span of 30 years can give birth to at most 16 young manta rays in a lifetime. Environmentalists are pushing for the adoption of relevant international trade conventions to ban the sale of manta rays. [5]

Protection level

IUCN's "red list" is always consistent with the latest scientific discoveries. For example, scientists

It was always thought that there was only one kind of manta rays in the world, that is, rock manta rays, but later people developed a new subspecies-giant manta rays, both of which have been included in the "red list". Giant manta rays are the largest species of manta rays. Adult manta rays can reach 7 meters in length and weigh 5000 kilograms, but they can do spinning and jumping. As the rotation speed becomes faster and faster, manta rays rise rapidly, jump out of the sea and glide in the sky like bats. In the theory of traditional Chinese medicine, the gill harrow of manta rays (bony fish) has two rows of parallel bony processes on the inner edge of each branchial arch, which is called gill harrow. ) has extremely high medicinal value, so the market price of manta rays is very high, which is why they are killed by fishermen in large numbers. Experts say it is necessary to regulate the manta rays market and protect their main habitats.

threaten

Manta rays are threatened by some people. Manta rays must constantly refresh their gills with oxygen-rich water, making them vulnerable to entanglement and subsequent choking swimming. Manta rays can't swim backwards, because of their protruding head fins, they are easily caught behind fishing lines, fishing nets and even loose anchor ropes.

Manta rays often try to release their somersaults and then pester themselves. If the tail line is loose, it can be cut, because its fleshy appendage swims, which will eventually lead to irreversible damage, such as the loss of the head fin and the damage of the pectoral fin. If the wound is serious enough, it will even die. Similarly, manta rays often entangle gill nets used in coastal and offshore fisheries, which will lead to suffocation and death in most cases.

By-catch and accidental death may seriously affect the slow-growing population and bats, especially the directional fishing of manta rays. In the past ten years, the cartilage structure of gill rakes that need radiation is difficult. Protecting gills and filtering plankton water have been growing in traditional medical methods in China, but it has not been proved to be a traditional remedy, and dry gill rakes are needed. Therefore, the growing demand in Asia is aimed at the development of fisheries around the world, including Sri Lanka, Indonesia, West Africa, Central America and South America. [26] Thousands of manta rays are killed every year. They are killed purely for gill rakes. A recent fishery study in Sri Lanka estimated that more than 1000 marine manta ray companies are caught by their rakes every year in the country's fish market. [27] In contrast, all the websites in the world where bonds of marine bats are aggregated exceed 1 1,000 individuals [28]. Targeted fishing in the Sea of Cortes, marine manta rays wiped out the local population in the 1980s and 1990s, and it has not recovered yet. Due to the low reproductive rate and long life span of manta rays, it will have long-term adverse effects on the fierce and targeted fishing of manta rays. [6]

protect

On 20 1 1 year, Mantas Company became a strictly protected migratory species of wild animals (CMS) and recently joined the convention in international waters. CMS is an international treaty organization that pays attention to and protects migratory species and habitats on a global scale. Although some countries have been protected, manta rays often migrate in unregulated waters, increasing the risk of overfishing.

The International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN) declared it as "fragile and high-risk extinction", and it is a giant manta ray 20 1 1+0 1.

Manta Trust is a British-based charity dedicated to the research and protection of manta rays. The organization's website [30] also provides information resources about bat protection and biology. [6]

Blue Sphere, an American animal protection organization, took a group of beautiful underwater photos 20 13 years ago, and let a hot blonde dance with the "devil fish" manta rays, in order to appeal to people to strengthen the protection of this cartilaginous fish.

This group of photos is full of sense of scene and exquisite pictures, and is named "The Last Dance of Manta rays". Blue Planet explained that this year's United Nations Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora will be held soon, which will be held every three years. They hope to put manta rays on the list of endangered animals that should be protected through this conference. The purpose of taking this group of photos is to create public opinion and call on the international community to better protect the endangered manta rays.

Manta ray is a cartilaginous fish with a flat body and a wider body than its length. Its maximum width can reach 8 meters, and it has

Weighing hundreds of kilograms or even tons. The giant and grotesque manta rays are actually a kind of gentle fish. They feed on plankton and small fish, and it is precisely because of their strange shape that they get the common name of "devil fish".