X-rays Expose New Species of Stingrays in Amazon

Biologists recently fished out two new species of freshwater stingray from a river in the Amazon rainforest near Iquitos, Peru. The animals have been put into a new genus – the first time this has been done for stingrays since 1987. At first glance the creatures look like nothing so much as freckled pancakes with feeble tails. But X-rays revealed an elaborate skeleton in which hundreds of slivers of cartilage fan out radially to support the fish’s floppy disc-shaped body.

from: New Scientist

Category Science Tags , , ,

Comments

Comments are closed.