#Tales by light ocean manta ray skin#

These similar physical attributes make it easy for you to mix up one for the other.īut while they have many things in common, there are even more ways to tell mantas and stingrays apart. They have pectoral fins for swimming and gills for breathing.

#Tales by light ocean manta ray skin#

Their skeletons are made of cartilages, not bones, and their skin is described as having tiny “placoid” (toothlike) scales.Īside from their cartilaginous skeletal structures, manta rays and stingrays both have disk-shaped bodies and tail-like appendages. Manta rays and stingrays are classified as fishes but they’re not your typical fish. This classification is the same class that sharks, skates, and chimaeras belong to. And understandably so when they both belong to the same class of cartilaginous fish known as Chondrichthyes.

It is very common to confuse manta rays with stingrays and vice versa. Was it a manta ray or a stingray? What’s the difference between manta rays and stingrays anyway? On the other hand, your more experienced friend insists it was a stingray instead.Īs you only saw it briefly, you’re probably confused as to what exactly you saw. You’re convinced you just saw your first manta! You describe the animal as a creature that is flat with a tail, and it looked like it was flapping its wings as it swam away. You come up for air and excitedly tell your friend that you saw. It’s your first time snorkeling or diving and out of nowhere you see a creature swimming away from you.