SCIENCE LAB. SCARES*. : GIANT STING RAYS

 

' Early Warning System ' : IN the tails of giant stingrays - signals of trouble ahead : 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 their most puzzling feature is a whiplike tail that can measure as long as the rest of the fish's body.

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 predators. And although stingray tails have a fearsome reputation for deadly stings, manta tails do not have defensive spines at all.

Instead, these elongated tails may act as fine-tuned antennae, specialized to detect approaching danger.

In a new paper, a pair of researchers analyzed tails belonging to cownose rays, a smaller relative manta rays.

They discovered that this structure contained specialized organs that help sense underwater stimuli, hinting at how other oceanic rays may use their rear appendages.

'' We had no idea that this huge structure had a sensorial function,'' said Julia Chaumel, a Harvard marine biologist.

The Publishing continues to Part [2]. The World Students Society thanks Jack Tamisiea.