Description
The pectoral fin disc of the plain maskray is thin and diamond-shaped with narrowly rounded outer corners, measuring 1.1–1.3 times longer than wide. The leading margins of the disc are gently concave and converge at a broad angle to the pointed tip of the snout. The small eyes are placed close together, and behind them are the spiracles. The nostrils are elongated and have a skirt-shaped flap of skin between them. The small mouth bears prominent furrows at the corners and contains two slender papillae on the floor. Small papillae are also found around the outside of the mouth. There are five pairs of gill slits. The pelvic fins are fairly large and pointed.
The tail is short, barely exceeding the length of the disc when intact, and has a broad and flattened base leading to usually two stinging spines. After the stings, the tail becomes slender and bears a long ventral fin fold and a much shorter, lower dorsal fin fold. Most of the body lacks dermal denticles; a midline row of 4–13 small, closely spaced thorns is present behind the spiracles, and another row of 0–4 thorns before the stings. The dorsal coloration is grayish green, becoming pinkish towards the disc margins; there is a dark mask-like shape around the eyes and a pair of small dark blotches behind the spiracles. The tail behind the stings has alternating black and white bands of variable width, ending with black at the tip. The underside is plain white and the ventral fin fold is light grayish in color. This species grows to 24 cm (9.4 in) across and 45 cm (18 in) long.
Read more about this topic: Plain Maskray
Famous quotes containing the word description:
“God damnit, why must all those journalists be such sticklers for detail? Why, they’d hold you to an accurate description of the first time you ever made love, expecting you to remember the color of the room and the shape of the windows.”
—Lyndon Baines Johnson (1908–1973)
“The next Augustan age will dawn on the other side of the Atlantic. There will, perhaps, be a Thucydides at Boston, a Xenophon at New York, and, in time, a Virgil at Mexico, and a Newton at Peru. At last, some curious traveller from Lima will visit England and give a description of the ruins of St Paul’s, like the editions of Balbec and Palmyra.”
—Horace Walpole (1717–1797)
“An intentional object is given by a word or a phrase which gives a description under which.”
—Gertrude Elizabeth Margaret Anscombe (b. 1919)