Common stingray
Common stingray ( Dasyatis pastinaca )
The Common stingray ( Dasyatis pastinaca ) is a ray species of the eastern Atlantic, which is like all Stingray equipped with a poisonous sting.
Features
The Common Stingray reaches a body length of up to 2.5 meters and weigh up to 10 kilograms. He usually stays well below one meter in length. He has a skate for typical flattened body, which has the shape of a diamond, with a long thin tail. The back side is mottled brown and dark, the underside is white. On the tail of the rays (hence the species name pastinaca - because the Romans had the sting similarity with the parsnip root ) wears a barbed sting. Dorsal fins are not present.
Dissemination
The Common Stingray lives on the ocean floor in the eastern Atlantic from the UK's south coast and the North Sea to South Africa and in the Mediterranean.
Way of life
Like the majority of rays is also the Common stingray a benthic fish, which he is to be found near the coast to 200 meters, mostly between 20 and 35 meters, on sandy and muddy bottoms. The crepuscular and nocturnal rays spend the day hidden in the sand and feed mainly on invertebrates such as crustaceans, molluscs and echinoderms and small fish.
The females are viviparous ( ovoviviparous ), the four to six embryos develop in a placenta -like Zottenbereich, which is formed from the right fallopian tube and secretes nutrients. The gestation period is about four months.