Bull ray

Bull ray
Conservation status
Data Deficient (IUCN 3.1)[1]
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Chondrichthyes
Order:	Myliobatiformes
Family:	Myliobatidae
Genus:	Pteromylaeus
Species:	P. bovinus
Binomial name
Pteromylaeus bovinus (É. Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, 1817)
Synonyms
Myliobatis bovina

For other species that go under the same name, see bull ray (disambiguation).

The bull ray, Pteromylaeus bovinus, or duckbill ray is a large stingray of the eagle ray (Myliobatidae) family found around coasts of Europe and Africa.

Its full distribution is uncertain but it is known to be found in the Black Sea, the Mediterranean Sea,^[2] the eastern Atlantic Ocean between Portugal and Guinea, the Atlantic from north of Saldanha Bay in western South Africa and round the rest of the South African coast into the Indian Ocean up to Maputo Bay in southern Mozambique, also Zanzibar and Kenya.^[1][3]

It is named bull ray for the shape of its head and is sometimes called duckbill ray in South Africa^[3] for its long, flat, round snout. Bull rays are often 180 cm and sometimes up to 250 cm in length from snout to tip of tail,^[3] 180 cm in width and weighing up to 100 kg.^[1] Females are larger and heavier than males.^[1] It has a tail spine averaging 61 mm in length in females and 32 mm in males.^[2]

It is found between the surf zone and depths of 65 m or more,^[3] and also enters estuaries and lagoons. It frequents both the bottom and the surface and sometimes leaps from the water.^[1]

References

1. ^ ^{a b c d e} Wintner, S.P. (2005). Pteromylaeus bovinus. 2006. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. IUCN 2006. www.iucnredlist.org. Retrieved on 6 September 2006.
2. ^ ^{a b} Schwartz, Frank J. "Tail spine characteristics of stingrays (Order Myliobatiformes) found in the northeast Atlantic, Mediterranean, and Black Sea" in Electronic Journal of Ichthyology, 1: 1-9, July 2005
3. ^ ^{a b c d} Froese, Rainer, and Daniel Pauly, eds. (2006). "Pteromylaeus bovinus" in FishBase. May 2006 version.