Wide stingaree facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Wide stingaree |
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| Conservation status | |
| Scientific classification | |
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Urolophidae
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| Genus: |
Urolophus
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| Species: |
U. expansus
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| Binomial name | |
| Urolophus expansus McCulloch, 1916
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The wide stingaree (Urolophus expansus) is a type of stingray that lives in the ocean. It belongs to the Urolophidae family. You can find it off the coast of southwestern Australia. This stingray usually lives on sandy seabeds. It prefers depths of about 200 to 300 meters (650 to 980 feet). That's pretty deep!
This stingray has a wide, diamond-shaped body. Its snout is a bit pointy. Its tail has a special leaf-like fin at the end. It also has skin folds along its sides. But it doesn't have any fins on its back. There's a skin flap between its nostrils that looks like a skirt. The wide stingaree is grayish-green on top. It has faint blue lines near and behind its eyes. The biggest one ever found was about 52 centimeters (20 inches) long.
The wide stingaree mainly eats small creatures like isopods and polychaete worms. Female stingarees give birth to live young. They provide a special "uterine milk" to their babies inside them. Sometimes, these stingarees get caught by accident in fishing nets. This is called bycatch. Even though they might not survive being caught, most of their home area is not heavily fished. So, the wide stingaree is not considered an endangered animal. The International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) lists it as "Least Concern."
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About Its Name
The first wide stingaree specimens were found in the Great Australian Bight. This happened thanks to a research ship called FIS Endeavour. An Australian scientist named Allan Riverstone McCulloch described them in 1916. He wrote about them in a science magazine called Biological Results Endeavour.
The second part of its scientific name, expansus, comes from Latin. It means "spread out" or "expanded." This name fits because of its wide body shape. Some people also call this stingray the "broadbacked stingaree."
Where It Lives and Its Home
The wide stingaree lives only in southwestern Australia. You can find it from Perth, Western Australia to Port Lincoln, South Australia. It's one of the stingrays that lives deepest in its family. This stingray lives on the ocean floor. It prefers the outer edge of the continental shelf and the upper continental slope. It lives at depths from 130 to 420 meters (430 to 1,380 feet).
It's most often found between 200 and 300 meters (650 and 980 feet) deep. It likes sandy areas. Scientists have noticed that younger stingarees and male or female stingarees might live in slightly different areas.
What It Looks Like
The wide stingaree has a body that looks like a diamond. Its body is much wider than it is long. The outer corners are nicely rounded. The front edges curve gently and meet at a blunt point on its snout. Its snout is a bit fleshy and sticks out slightly.
Its eyes are big. Right behind the eyes are comma-shaped openings called spiracles. These have rounded back edges. Between its nostrils, there's a flap of skin that looks like a skirt. This flap has a slightly fringed edge. Its mouth is a medium size. Inside, it has 6 to 9 small, nipple-like bumps called papillae on the bottom. There's also a small patch of these bumps on its lower jaw. Its teeth are small and have oval bases. It has five short pairs of gill slits. The fins on its belly are small and have rounded edges.
The stingaree's tail is long. It's about 71% to 93% as long as its body. The base of the tail is very flat. It also has well-developed skin folds along its sides. This stingray does not have any fins on its back. The fin at the very end of its tail is long and shaped like a spear. It has a jagged, stinging spine on top of its tail. This spine is about halfway along the tail's length. Its skin is completely smooth.
The wide stingaree is dusky green on top. It has two faint, bluish lines behind its eyes. There are also two similar lines that go outwards from its eyes. Its underside is white to light brown. It gets darker towards the edges of its body. The tail has dark blotches. Young stingarees have a dark tail fin. The largest wide stingaree ever recorded was 52 centimeters (20 inches) long.
Life Cycle and Diet
The wide stingaree is not very well understood. It mainly eats small creatures like isopods and polychaete worms. Like other stingrays, the wide stingaree gives birth to live young. This is called aplacental viviparous. The baby stingarees grow inside the mother. They get food from a special "uterine milk" that the mother produces. The number of babies born at one time is probably small, similar to other stingray species.
Male stingarees become ready to have babies when their body is about 30 to 36 centimeters (12 to 14 inches) wide. This usually happens when they are about seven years old. They can live up to 11 years. Female stingarees become ready to have babies when their body is about 40 centimeters (16 inches) wide. A type of tapeworm called Acanthobothrium is known to be a parasite of this stingaree.
Wide Stingaree and People
People can eat the wide stingaree, but it's not usually sold in stores. It often gets caught by accident in large fishing nets. This happens in the Great Australian Bight Trawl Sector, which is part of a bigger fishery. It's also sometimes caught by a smaller fishery in the western part of its range.
When these stingarees are brought up from deep water, they usually don't survive. Also, stingarees often give birth early when they are caught. However, the main fishing area only covers a part of where the wide stingaree lives. So, not many of these stingarees are caught overall. Because of this, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) says that this species is of "Least Concern." This means it's not currently threatened with extinction.
