Southern stingray

Hypanus americanus · The southern stingray is a flat, diamond-shaped whiptail stingray that lives in tropical and subtropical waters of the Western Atlantic from New Jersey to southern Brazil.

Southern stingray
Photo: Bernard DUPONT from FRANCE, CC BY-SA 2.0
Southern stingray
Photo: Albert kok, CC BY-SA 3.0
Southern stingray
Photo: James St. John, CC BY 2.0

Taxonomy

KingdomAnimalia
PhylumChordata
ClassChondrichthyes
OrderMyliobatiformes
FamilyDasyatidae
GenusHypanus
SpeciesHypanus americanus

Where it lives

Sandy shallows of the western Atlantic, Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean.

Fun facts

  • Southern stingrays breathe through openings behind their eyes called spiracles, so they can take in water while lying on the seabed or partly buried in sand.
  • To find hidden prey, southern stingrays spray water from their mouths or flap their fins hard to stir up the seabed.
  • Female southern stingrays can reach a disc width of 150 centimetres, while the smaller males top out at 67 centimetres.
  • Some cormorants follow foraging southern stingrays and eat the hidden fish that the digging rays uncover.

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Facts and taxonomy adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0).