Ocellate River Stingray

This is a series of pages that talk about the ocellate river stingray (Potamotrygon motoro) and its ecology, morphology, and life history.

Photo by Tanya Dewey. License: Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.

Taxonomy

KingdomAnimalia
PhylumChordata
ClassChondrichthyes
OrderMyliobatiformes
FamilyPotamotrygonidae
GenusPotamotrygon
Speciesmotoro
(Froese et al.)

Fun Facts

  • Potamotrygonidae is thought to have split from their marine relatives 15-23 million years ago (Tresberg et al. 2006).
  • Potamotrygon motoro is one of the most popular aquarium species of stingray due to their compatibility with freshwater and spotted back (Ng et al. 2010).
  • There is a myth that female stingrays menstruate. This is likely because the cloaca is bloody after mating (Spiegel 2013).

Read Further

References

Froese R, Capuli E, Garilao C, Pauly D (no date)Potamotrygon motoro. https://www.fishbase.us/summary/SpeciesSummary.php?ID=6382&genusname=Potamotrygon&speciesname=motoro&AT=Potamotrygon+motoro&lang=English (accessed April 25, 2024)

Ng HH, Tan HH, Yeo DCJ, Ng PKL (2010) Stingers in a strange land: South American freshwater stingrays (Potamotrygonidae) in Singapore. Biol Invasions 12.

Spiegel J (2013) Potamotrygon motoro Black river stingray (Also: Ocellate river stingray; South American freshwater stin). https://animaldiversity.org/accounts/Potamotrygon_motoro/ (accessed April 25, 2024)

Tresberg JR, Speers-Roesch B, Piermarini PM, Ip YK, Ballantyne JS, Driedzic WR (2006) The accumulation of methylamine counteracting solutes in elasmobranchs with differing levels of urea: a comparison of marine and freshwater species. J Exp Biol 209:860–870.

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