Description
The giant freshwater stingray has a relatively thin, more or less oval-shaped pectoral fin disk and minute eyes. The snout is very broad with a projecting triangular tip. The mouth is small, with 4–7 papillae (2–4 large central and 1–4 small lateral) on the floor. The whip-like tail measures 1.8–2.5 times the length of the disk and lacks fin folds. The serrated spine on the tail is the largest of any stingray, reaching 38 cm (15 in) long. It is covered with a sheath of toxic mucus and is capable of piercing bone.
The upper surface of the body and tail are covered with small, rough tubercles, becoming sharp on the tail beyond the spine. The back is uniform brown to gray in color, sometimes becoming lighter towards the margins. The underside is white, with a distinctive broad, black band edged with small spots around the margins of the pectoral and pelvic fins. The tail is black past the spine. This species reaches at least 4.88 meters (16 ft) long and 2.13 meters (7 ft) across.
Read more about this topic: Giant Freshwater Stingray
Famous quotes containing the word description:
“To give an accurate description of what has never occurred is not merely the proper occupation of the historian, but the inalienable privilege of any man of parts and culture.”
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900)
“Do not require a description of the countries towards which you sail. The description does not describe them to you, and to- morrow you arrive there, and know them by inhabiting them.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“Everything to which we concede existence is a posit from the standpoint of a description of the theory-building process, and simultaneously real from the standpoint of the theory that is being built. Nor let us look down on the standpoint of the theory as make-believe; for we can never do better than occupy the standpoint of some theory or other, the best we can muster at the time.”
—Willard Van Orman Quine (b. 1908)