{"id":1930,"date":"2025-01-25T05:43:41","date_gmt":"2025-01-25T05:43:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/site.itshrt.com\/worldnews\/scientists-finally-make-heads-of-giant-stingray-tails\/"},"modified":"2025-01-25T05:43:41","modified_gmt":"2025-01-25T05:43:41","slug":"scientists-finally-make-heads-of-giant-stingray-tails","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/site.itshrt.com\/worldnews\/scientists-finally-make-heads-of-giant-stingray-tails\/","title":{"rendered":"Scientists Finally Make Heads of Giant Stingray Tails"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <script async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-6606220950177433\"\r\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script>\r\n<!-- ItShrt World News -->\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:block\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-6606220950177433\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"1882483372\"\r\n     data-ad-format=\"auto\"\r\n     data-full-width-responsive=\"true\"><\/ins>\r\n<script>\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-0\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">With hornlike facial fins and diamond-shape bodies that can stretch nearly 30 feet across, manta rays are among the strangest fish in the sea. Yet these behemoths\u2019 most puzzling feature is a whip-like tail that can measure as long as the rest of the fish\u2019s body.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Why mantas and related rays have such long tails has long been a mystery. The fish do not use their tails to propel through the water or to lash out at potential predators. And although stingray tails have <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2006\/09\/04\/world\/04cnd-irwin.html\" title=\"\">a fearsome reputation<\/a> for deadly stings, manta tails lack defensive spines entirely.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Instead, these elongated tails may act as fine-tuned antennae, specialized to detect approaching danger. In a paper published on Wednesday in the <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/royalsocietypublishing.org\/doi\/10.1098\/rspb.2024.2192\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences<\/a>, a pair of researchers analyzed tails belonging to cownose rays, a smaller relative of manta rays. They discovered that this elongated structure contained specialized organs that help sense underwater stimuli, hinting at how other oceanic rays may use their rear appendages.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cThe complexity inside the tail was super surprising,\u201d said J\u00falia Chaumel, a marine biologist at Harvard University and an author of the paper. \u201cWe had no idea that this huge structure had a sensorial function.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-1\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">While most stingray species reside near the seafloor, mantas and other rays in the myliobatid order spend most of their time in open water. These fish flap their enlarged, triangle-shaped pectoral fins to fly through the water and migrate over long distances.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">According to Matt Ajemian, a researcher at Florida Atlantic University who studies sharks and rays, most stingrays have short, muscular tails that they use to flex venomous barbs. But myliobatid rays possess very different backsides.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cWhen you pick it up, it\u2019s almost like a giant noodle, but in the water it\u2019s very rigid,\u201d said Dr. Ajemian, who was not involved in the new study. \u201cNobody really had a clue what these tails were being used for.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-2\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">To understand this anatomical feature, Dr. Chaumel and her colleague George Lauder took a closer look at the tails of cownose rays, a type of stout stingray with a double-lobed snout. They dissected the tails of several pickled specimens in the collection of the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard. They also acquired two recently deceased rays. They created three-dimensional micro-CT scans of the tails, and cut thin slices to study the tissue structures.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-3\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The team discovered that the stiff tissue of a cownose ray\u2019s tail was pockmarked with holes. The 3-D scans revealed that these holes were linked to the fish\u2019s lateral line canal, a system of sensory organs found in fish and amphibians. The lateral line runs the length of the fish\u2019s body and is connected to receptors in the fish\u2019s skin to detect movements in the surrounding water.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">In most aquatic vertebrates, the lateral line is most complex near the fish\u2019s head, and becomes more streamlined as it approaches the animal\u2019s tail. But in the cownose ray, the more complex system ran the length of the tail and branched off to connect to pores in the fish\u2019s skin.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The team posits that this network helps the rays\u2019 tails pinpoint stimuli in the surrounding water. This would be particularly handy when cownose rays descend to the seafloor to vacuum up burrowing bivalves. As they bury their heads in the sand, the rays are exposed to predators.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">A fine-tuned antenna sticking out of their backsides would help the rays detect trouble before it was too late. \u201cA shark coming in from behind would cause these huge movements of water, which lets the ray know it\u2019s time to zoom away,\u201d Dr. Chaumel said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Dr. Ajemian agrees that it is plausible that cownose rays\u2019 tails act as antennae, which is somewhat surprising because his team encounters rays with damaged or missing tails in the wild. \u201cWe thought the tail was something that could easily be shed,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Dr. Chaumel thinks there\u2019s more to the tail than just early warnings. Her team is analyzing other species, including manta rays, to see if these structures help steady these fishes as they swim, like the tail of a kite.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-6606220950177433\"\r\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script>\r\n<!-- ItShrt World News -->\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:block\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-6606220950177433\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"1882483372\"\r\n     data-ad-format=\"auto\"\r\n     data-full-width-responsive=\"true\"><\/ins>\r\n<script>\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/01\/21\/science\/stingray-tail-antenna.html\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>With hornlike facial fins and diamond-shape bodies that can stretch nearly 30 feet across, manta rays are among the strangest<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1931,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1930","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-science"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Scientists Finally Make Heads of Giant Stingray Tails - World News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/site.itshrt.com\/worldnews\/scientists-finally-make-heads-of-giant-stingray-tails\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Scientists 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