The yellow stingray is a member of the Urolophidae, or round ray family. The scientific name for a yellow stingray is Urobatus jamaicensis, which originates from the Greek words “oura” meaning tail and “batis” meaning a ray. It is most commonly called the yellow stingray, but can also be known as round stingray, yellow spotted stingray, and the maid stingray. (Piercy, 2009)
Like other rays of the Urolophidae family, the yellow stingray has an almost round body, or disc body. It has a circular shaped pectoral fin and a short snout. The eyes are behind the snout. Yellow stingrays do not have a dorsal fin. It has a caudal fin which is around the tip of its tail. They have a long flat tail spine located just behind caudal fin. This tail spine is used as a poisonous barb, which is used only when needed in self-defense. They move by rippling their bodies in waves or by flapping their sides like wings allowing them to glide. The yellow stingray is considered to be part of the elasmobranch class which is made up of rays, sharks and skates that all have a skeleton made of cartilage instead of bone. Due to the fact that the stingray is composed of cartilage, it is classified as an invertebrate. (Kennedy, 2008) Because they are elasmobranchs, these rays do not have a swim bladder which is a gas-filled sac found in the body of many bony fishes and is used to maintain and control their buoyancy. Instead, elasmobranchs maintain buoyancy with oil that they store in their livers. (Peters, 2008) The majority of yellow rays have either a pattern of dark green or brown on a pale background, or a pattern of white, yellow or golden spots on a dark green or brown background on the dorsal side. The bottom side of the disc is yellowish or brow...
... middle of paper ...
...ries as “Discarded catch of any living marine resource plus retained incidental catch and unobserved mortality due to a direct encounter with fishing gear.” (Miller, 2004) . The population of the yellow stingray can also be affected by a loss or damage to their habitat and a reduction of their prey.
When researching the yellow stingray, there was a small amount of information about how stingrays are used the medical field. Many articles discussed how there might be a possibility that a healing quality was present in the stingrays skin. Many of the articles did not go into great detail due to the fact that there was a lack of research and tests regarding this idea. I would like to understand how the stingray’s skin can heal wounds and scrapes. It would be interesting to conduct a study trying to solve the myth of if stingray’s skin really do heal or not.
Because of its size and abundance, T. californicus is commonly regarded as the insect of the sea. This creature is generally very small, from 1-3 mm in size as adults. They are cylindrically shaped, and have a segmented body (head, thorax, abdomen) though no noticeable division between body regions (Powlik 1966). Each segment of the body has a pair of legs. They use their 'legs' to propel themselves through the water in short rapid jerks. They have 2 pairs of long feathered antennae, a chitin us exoskeleton and a single eye in the middle of their head, this simple eye can only differentiate between light and dark.
Known as Pterois Volitans in the animal kingdom, also called the red lionfish, is a sight to behold in the tropical waters as they swim like an underwater butterfly in the sea. In waters not native to their origin, as they are from the Pacific and have predators that will have them for a snack. Invasive to the Caribbean Sea they have rapidly reached the Gulf of Mexico and far south, spreading to parts of South America. The lionfish has become a persistent pest that’s more trouble than what it appears to be, attractive yet deceptive with a striking pattern of white and red stripes. In the New York Times article, A Call to Action… and Even Rodeos, scientists say that, “from 2005 onward, lionfish have become the most numerous nonnative invasive species in the world.” The average pound fish is one of nature’s clever creations, a venomous foe with spines and an infinite appetite that reproduce quickly. Invasive species are notorious because they have no or almost nonexistent natural predators and they are adapt to their new home very well. The biological adaptations of this fish has caused both ecological and economical mayhem, serious measures have been taken up to control their population as well as to protect our coral reefs.
In the past twenty years a large amount of bottlenose dolphin have been killed due to the tuna fishery. In the Eastern Pacific swim large schools of tuna, these shoals tend to be under herds of dolphins, for some unexplained reason. Because of this, fishermen can easily find schools of tuna. The tuna are being caught under purse seine nets, which encircles the shoals of tuna and then is pulled back on board the fishing vessel, catching both tuna and dolphin. Initially the mortality rate was 500,000 each year for dolphins alone. Although some efforts are made to encourage the dolphins to leave the net by backing down part of the net, which allows the dolphins to escape, there are still a large number of mortalities (Bryant). On the other hand, in the last few years there has been dramatic progress in stopping the fishing industries from using purse sine nets. It has been found that dolphins are in immediate danger of extinction if these fishing techniques don’t stop.
The Carcharhinus leucas commonly called the "bull shark" is a very unique shark. The bull shark can live in both salt water and fresh water but is commonly found along the Mississippi River and around Nicaragua. The bull sharks has a very blunt rounded nose giving it a bullish type of appearance thus giving it the name bull shark. The sharks are a dark black to a light grey with a white underbelly. Bull sharks can grow to be about 350 cm long and weigh around 230 kilograms. Bull sharks also tend to have smaller eyes compared to many other sharks which indicates that the bull sharks have limited vision. The bull sharks have triangular teeth like the great white shark (one of the bull sharks cousins). The bulls teeth are heavily serrated and are about 1.5 inches long which makes it easy to tear apart the flesh of their prey.
Lionfish have brown and white stripes covering their body (NOAA, 2011). Lionfish have broad pectoral fins, and long individual dorsal spines that contain the venom glands in the tips (NOAA, 2011). The venom of the lionfish is only intended as a defense mechanism and not meant to kill. The spines of the lionfish deliver a sting that can result in severe pain, respiratory distress, and even paralysis (NOAA, 2011). Lionfish are found in almost all tropical marine habitats consisting of warm waters due to their invasive behavior. Their native range covers a very large area from western Australia and Malaysia east to French Polynesia and off the east coast of Australia to the Kermadec Islands of New Zealand (NOAA, 2011). Lionfish have been found along the coast from Florida to North Carolina. The first lionfish was reported in South Florida waters in 1985 with additional sightings occurring until they were documented as established in the early 2000s (NOAA, 2011). Lionfish are very popular aquarium fish, especially in the U.S making them important to the aquarium trade. There are two possible ideas about how the lionfish were introduced into the Atlantic. The first is through ballast water, the water carried in the bellies of the enormous transport ships of intercontinental trade (Whitney, 2003). Larval lionfish have low oxygen and food needs which makes surviving movement in ballast water a possibility (Whitney, 2003). The second possibility is that a number of...
Viperfish has its own scientific name, Chauliodus Sloani. It lives in the darkest depth of the sea in the range between 250 to 5000 feet in the daytime and shallower depths at night, primarily in tropical and temperate waters. Viperfish only grows up to 60 centimetres . However, they possess extremely over-grown teeth which is very useful for hunting prey. This fierce creature has developed a specialize hunting technique that is perfect for deep ocean floor where there is no light. This fish generates its own light and uses it to attract prey through a process known as bioluminescence . Viperfish has several light-generating-organs along the side of its body called the photophores. They also have a long spine in their back with another photophores at the end of it. They mainly use the photophores to communicate with other members of the species such as when they are attracting mate .
This tree is an Eastern White Pine and it took me 4 steps to get the answer.
Sharks come in many shapes, sizes, and colors. They have different personalities, and they live in oceans all over the world. Not much you can say about sharks is true for all of them, but there are a few things you can say about the anatomy of most sharks. They breathe through gill slits, have rigid fins and they don't have a bladder.
The White Heron is a spiritual story portraying great refinement and concerns with higher things in life. A 9 year old girl once isolated in the city found fulfillment in a farm surrounded by nature. Too those less unfortunate, money charm and other attractions can be intoxicated; Sylvia did not bite. She could have helped her situation and found a way to wealth but in the end she realized that it wouldn’t help her to be the person she wanted to be. This paper will illustrate a critical analysis of the story of White Heron and focus on the relationship between the literary elements of the story, plot, characterization, style, symbolism and women’s concerns that are specific to this period.
They use their special senses to hunt and find there food. Sharks have an incredible sense of smell to find their prey. They can smell a drop of blood in an Olympic sized pool. The can also sense electric pulses in the water to locate their prey. Sting rays can also do this.
Flamingos are delicate and bright pink birds. But did you know that the baby chick of a flamingo isn’t pink when they are born? If you already knew that, then, give yourself a pat on the back! There are a lot of interesting things about flamingos, but in this essay we will explore facts about about the flamingo's diet, habitat and predators. Diet
When the pink flamingo splashed into the fifties market it staked two major claims to boldness. First, it was a flamingo. Since the 1930s, vacationing Americans had been flocking to Florida and returning home with flamingo souvenirs. In the 1910s and 1920s, Miami Beach first grand hotel, The Flamingo, had made the bird synonymous with wealth and pizzazz. Later developers built hundreds of more modest hotels to cater to an eager middle class served by new train lines and in South Beach especially architects employ the playful Art Deco style, replete with bright pinks and flamingo motifs.
Besides just background information, I would like to find out how big they can get, and how long they can live. Also, I want to know how they produce their offspring, and how big their offspring are at birth. As well, I would like to find out what they eat, and who their predators are. Answers to these questions will give me a better understanding of manta rays, and hopefully make my experience will them more fulfilling.
Although sharks belong to the class Chondrichtyes, there are many different types. Sharks arose about 350 million years ago and have remained virtually unchanged for the past 70 million years and still comprise a dominant group. It is thought that sharks almost certainly evolved from placoderms, a group of primitive jawed fishes. It took a long series of successful and unsuccessful mutations with fin, jaw positions etc to give us all the different designs of sharks around today. When asked to draw a shark, most people would draw a shape along the lines of the whaler shark family, tigers or a mackeral shark such as a porbeagle. However many people do not realize the sheer diversity in the shape of sharks, or that rays are really sharks. Seldom does such an animal inspire such a variety of emotions reflecting a mixture of fascination, awe and fear. Sharks have occasionally exacted a terrible price from humans who have trespassed on their territory. No better understood than the ocean that they inhabit, these creatures should be regarded in the same way as lions, tigers, and bears: as dangerous, predatory but nonetheless magnificent animals. Different Types of Sharks Living sharks are divided into eight major orders, each easily recognizable by certain external characteristics. Each order contains one or more smaller groups, or families. In all there are 30 families of sharks and they contain the 350 or more different kinds or species of sharks. The eight major orders of sharks include the Squantiformes, Pristiophormes, Squaliformes, Hexanchiformes, Carcharhiniformes, Lamniformes, Orectolobiformes, and the Heterodotiformes.
Most people think that sharks are large, fast-swimmers, and savage predators. This is true of some species and groups should be interested of the appealing aspects of biology found within it: all sharks have an excellent sense of smell; some can detect electrical discharges; some sharks give birth to one of the