The spiny butterfly ray or giant butterfly ray (Gymnura altavela) is a species of butterfly ray, family Gymnuridae, native to the shallow coastal waters of the Atlantic Ocean. A large ray that can measure over 2 m (6 ft 7 in) across, it may be distinguished from the sympatric smooth butterfly ray (G. micrura) by the spine at the base of its tail and by a small tentacular structure on the margin of each spiracle. Slow-reproducing and valued for its meat, in recent decades its population has experienced a decline of over 30%, and it has become Critically Endangered in certain parts of its range.
Read more about Spiny Butterfly Ray: Distribution and Habitat, Description, Biology and Ecology, Relationship To Humans
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“These facts have always suggested to man the sublime creed that the world is not the product of manifold power, but of one will, of one mind; and that one mind is everywhere active, in each ray of the star, in each wavelet of the pool; and whatever opposes that will is everywhere balked and baffled, because things are made so, and not otherwise.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)