Saturday, March 12, 2011

New genus of stingray discovered

This is new species day here at the sci/tech blog, and here's a cool one: Canadian professor Nathan Lovejoy and his co-authors have described a new genus of stingray, with two new species, from the upper Amazon. The genus Heliotrygon is the first new genus of stingray form the Amazon basin, a region known for hundreds of new fish in recent years, in over two decades. The new type is distinguished by "large size, pancake-like appearance, having a distinct pattern of lateral line canals on the ventral surface and a degenerate spine" (meaning both new species are stingrays without stings). Length is up to 0.5m.

1 comment:

omegaman66 said...

I have to laugh. When I started reading I though Amazon or maybe far east and then I see Canadian's!!! Canada???? Then I read more. Amazon it is.