Description
The spiny butterfly ray has a very broad, lozenge-shaped pectoral fin disk much wider than it is long, with concave front margins and abruptly rounded corners. The snout is short and blunt. The teeth have high, conical cusps, numbering 98–138 rows in the upper jaw and 78–110 rows in the lower jaw. In both jaws there are 10–12 functional tooth rows with each dental band occupying 70% the width of the jaw. There is a tentacle-like structure on the inner posterior margin of each spiracle. The tail is short and slender, measuring a quarter the disk width, with upper and lower fin folds. There are one or more serrated spines at the base of the tail.
The skin is naked in juveniles and subadults, while adults develop a patch of denticles on the center of the disk. The coloration is dark brown above, sometimes with small lighter or darker spots and blotches in a marbled pattern, and white below. Juveniles have pale crossbars on the tail. The maximum reported size is 2.2 m (7 ft 3 in) disk width in the northwest Atlantic, though there are unsubstantiated reports of rays over 4 m (13 ft) off West Africa. The maximum published weight is 60 kg (130 lb).
Read more about this topic: Spiny Butterfly Ray
Famous quotes containing the word description:
“It is possible—indeed possible even according to the old conception of logic—to give in advance a description of all ‘true’ logical propositions. Hence there can never be surprises in logic.”
—Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889–1951)
“The Sage of Toronto ... spent several decades marveling at the numerous freedoms created by a “global village” instantly and effortlessly accessible to all. Villages, unlike towns, have always been ruled by conformism, isolation, petty surveillance, boredom and repetitive malicious gossip about the same families. Which is a precise enough description of the global spectacle’s present vulgarity.”
—Guy Debord (b. 1931)
“Once a child has demonstrated his capacity for independent functioning in any area, his lapses into dependent behavior, even though temporary, make the mother feel that she is being taken advantage of....What only yesterday was a description of the child’s stage in life has become an indictment, a judgment.”
—Elaine Heffner (20th century)