Stingrays are an important part of the biomass of the fishes in shallow coastal ecosystems, particularly in inter-reefal areas. In these habitats, they are considered keystone species – modifying physical and biological habitats through their foraging and predation. Here, we quantify the effects of bioturbation by rays on sand flats of Ningaloo Reef lagoon in Western Australia. We measured the ...

Skates, rays and allies (Batoidea) comprise more than half of the species diversity and much of the morphological disparity among chondrichthyan fishes, the sister group to all other jawed vertebrates. While batoids are morphologically well characterized and have an excellent fossil record, there is currently no consensus on the interrelationships of family-level taxa. Here we construct a resol...

Sun-drying was carried out to dry fish skins of four species of seawater fish, namely yellowfin tuna, brown stingray, red snapper and white cheek shark, and the gelatins extracted from the skins were characterized in comparison to those of extracted from fresh skins. The fish skins were pretreated using 0.05 M acetic acid followed by extraction at 80oC for 2 h. The gelatin obtained was analyzed...

This paper presents a locomotion control implementation of a robotic system mimicking the undulating fins of fish. To mimic the actual flexible fin of a real fish, we created a ribbon fin type actuation device with a series of connecting linkages and attached it to the robotic fish. By virtue of a specially designed strip with a slider, each link is able to turn and slide with respect to the ad...

The primary pathway descending to the spinal cord to initiate locomotion in the stingray is located in the intermediate to ventral portion of the lateral funiculus; a second pathway is located in the dorsolateral funiculus. The goal of this study was to identify the origins of these pathways in the rhombencephalic reticular formation (RF). To do this we used microstimulation of the RF in conjun...

Dendromonocotyle species (Monogenea: Monocotylidae) are the only monocotylids to parasitize the skin of chondrichthyan hosts. Currently 11 species are recorded from the skin of ray species in the Dasyatidae, Myliobatidae and Urolophidae. There have been increasing reports of Dendromonocotyle outbreaks on rays kept in public aquaria. This paper provides a broad review of Dendromonocotyle that sh...

The great white shark (Carcharodon carcharias) exhibits viviparous and oophagous reproduction. A 4950 mm total length (TL) gravid female accidentally caught by fishermen in the Okinawa Prefecture, Southern Japan carried six embryos (543-624 mm TL, three in each uterus). Both uteri contained copious amounts of yellowish viscous uterine fluid (over 79.2 litres in the left uterus), nutrient eggs a...

A new lecanicephalidean genus is erected for cestodes previously recognised as "New Genus 12" (Polypocephalidae) in a phylogenetic analysis of the interrelationship of members of this order. Examination of the cestode fauna of the mangrove whipray, Urogymnus granulatus (Macleay) (Myliobatiformes: Dasyatidae) from the Solomon Islands and northern Australia revealed the existence of specimens rep...

BACKGROUND Marine stings and envenomation are fairly common in Malaysia. Possible contact to various marine life occurs during diving, fishing and food handling. Even though majority of fish stings are benign, there are several venomous species such as puffer fish, scorpion fish, lionfish, stingray and stonefish that require urgent medical treatment. Stonefish is one of the most venomous fish i...