The southern stingray is a moderately sized whiptail stingray native to the western Atlantic Ocean. The stingray's mouth is located underneath its body - a good adaptation for feeding on ocean bottom dwellers like crabs, clams and shrimp. The stingray’s barb is sharp and serrated, allowing it to easily pierce soft tissue.

As you can guess by its name, this is a large species of stingray that lives in rivers, estuaries, and other freshwater environments. This is a species that can adapt to living in salt water and estuaries. A distinctive feature of all stingrays is its barb, found on the stingray’s tail. This bluish-grey or grey-brown stingray often has 2 stings, a small one in front one and the usual rear one considerably larger, which bear toxin glands. Identification. SOUTHERN STINGRAY Dasyatis americana.

This quick key is a guide to the most common stingrays you’ll find in Florida waters. We could say that as much as sharks are scary, being preyed on by a stingray is even more terrifying. GET CREATIVE!! Its disk is rhomboid in shape like the Atlantic’s disk, but is distinguishable by its blunt or rounded snout. Southern Stingray This type of stingray is commonly found in the tropical and subtropical waters of the southern Atlantic Ocean, Caribbean Sea and Gulf of Mexico. Only the stingray has a thorn on its tail. The stingray’s eyes are situated on top of its head while the mouth is on the underside of its body, meaning it cannot effectively view its prey and therefore seems to rely primarily on its sense of smell and taste to locate prey. Stingray Plates – These fossils are of a stingray’s mouth plates used to grasps and crush their food. If they took in water through their mouths, they would probably just get a mouthful of sand. The Southern Stingray has a thin, flat body, like a diamond-shaped disc (or kite-shaped), that can be brown, olive-green-brown, or grey. The Guitarfish is a uniquely shaped stingray. Stingray feed primarily on mollusks and crustaceans, but will feed opportunistically on injured or unwary fish. Diet: Carnivorous. Mouth on the underside of the head. High levels of ammonia or low levels of oxygen can cause "hypoxia" -- neurological brain damage -- which can lead to organ issues and eventually, death.

Rays use their pectoral fins to fly through the water. Southern stingrays are found in the the western Atlantic Ocean from New England to Brazil, with abundant populations in the Caribbean Sea, Gulf of Mexico, Grand Cayman Island, British West Indies, Bahamas, coastal Belize, and the southern coast of Florida. Scientists don't think they use their eyes for hunting very much though. Southern Stingray - Antigua On the island of Antigua, southeast of St. Kitts, in the Caribbean, there is a place called Stingray City where southern stingrays have been hand fed and become tame enough to be cradled in the arms of humans. ... the mouth of the Mask stingray is also small. Gills and Spiracles. To prevent hypoxia, keep stingrays in an appropriately-sized aquarium given their size, age and species. The top of the body varies between olive brown and green in adults, dark grey in juveniles, whilst the underside is predominantly white (2) (3). Facts & information. The fins of the ray create a disk shape that can be round, triangular, or diamond-shaped. Southern stingray Dasyatis americana Hildebrand & Schroeder, 1928 Description: Body dorso-ventrally flattened, with greatly enlarged pectoral fins, which give them a disc-like shape. Squalicorax Tooth – Also called the Crow Shark, this animal reached 15 to 16 feet in length and had triangular, flattened teeth. It has a white underbelly, where its small mouth is located. The southern stingray is adapted for life on the sea bed. Snout and tips of fins pointed. The giant freshwater stingray is classed as one of the largest freshwater fish in the world. Though a bony fish takes in water with its mouth, rays do not because they live at the bottom of the ocean. Southern Stingray Facts. It has a long, tapering tail with two dorsal fins and venomous serrated (saw-like) barbs. (600 kg). The southern stingray is a benthic, or bottom dwelling, organism that generally lives in shallow, coastal waters. At night, it feeds on invertebrates and small fish that live in the deep sea and, during the day, it like to stay buried in the sand. In contrast, the mouth of the longnose sawshark, southern stingray, yellow stingray and marble ray — animals that dig through soft sediment on the seafloor to uncover their prey — is on the underside of the head, a better location for a mouth that needs to capture prey from above. The barb is a modified denticle, derived from the dermal layer of tissue during development. The Guitarfish’s head is flat and small.