The giant devil ray Mobula mobular (Bonnaterre, 1788) is not giant, but it is the only spinetail devil ray

Mobula mobular , a mobulid species once considered a Mediterranean Sea endemic, has received its common name “giant devil ray” based on repeated misidentifications of oceanic manta rays, Mobula birostris , that had strayed into the Mediterranean, where they had never been reported from before. Based...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published inMarine biodiversity records Vol. 13; no. 1; p. 1
Main Authors Notarbartolo di Sciara, Giuseppe, Stevens, Guy, Fernando, Daniel
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published London Cambridge University Press 30.04.2020
Subjects
Decades
Ecology
Ekologi
Intervertebral discs
Marine fishes
Mobula
Mobula hypostoma
Mobula mobular
Morphology
Museums
Phylogeny
Spine
Synonymy
Taxonomic revision
Taxonomy
Vernacular names
Mediterranean Sea
Spain
Online AccessGet full text

Cover

More Information
Summary:Mobula mobular , a mobulid species once considered a Mediterranean Sea endemic, has received its common name “giant devil ray” based on repeated misidentifications of oceanic manta rays, Mobula birostris , that had strayed into the Mediterranean, where they had never been reported from before. Based on the maximum known size (350 cm disc width) of M. mobular, when compared to some of its congenerics, the giant devil ray is not giant at all. A recent revision of the phylogeny and taxonomy of genus Mobula , which included, amongst other things, the decision to consider the circumtropical spinetail devil ray M. japanica a junior synonym of M. mobular , has caused the latter species to become circumglobal, and the only known mobulid with a tail spine. As a consequence, it is here recommended that the common name of M. mobular be “spinetail devil ray”.
Bibliography:ObjectType-Article-1
SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1
ObjectType-Feature-2
content type line 14
ISSN:1755-2672
1755-2672
DOI:10.1186/s41200-020-00187-0