Thornback Ray

This one is for all you shark lovers out there...

"That's a ray!?!" Yeah, don't panic, I've not gone mad. This is a Thornback Ray (Raja clavata- if I ever needed a stage name, this latin name would be the name for me)
It may not be the shark you're thinking of but it is an Elasmobranch, and members of the Elasmobranch subclass include sharks, rays and skates. They are very closely related and I like to think of rays as flattened sharks. Instead of a bones these have a cartilaginous skeleton. Feel your ears at the top, that's the same sort of stuff. It's all bendy and flexible (don't go mad now, no need to hurt yourself). Having bendy cartilage instead of rigid bone allows these animals to be more flexible in water and allow them to make swift turns and do graceful loop de loops.

You often find these Rays eggcases (or Mermaids Purses) washed up on the strandline on our beaches. Identifying the eggcase to a species will tell you what species are living and breeding in those waters.

The Sharks Trust run a Great Eggcase Hunt, if you find an eggcase then send in your results. Sharks and Rays numbers have been declining, this information helps identify areas of potential nursing grounds and gives a better understanding of the abundance and distribution of certain species.  Click here to find out more about the Great Eggcase Hunt and how to get involved

I've had to say "goodbye" to two lots of Thornback Rays in my few years at the aquarium. That's because this species can grow to 140cm (4 feet 7 inches), and the tank we keep them in is not big enough to accommodate that size. We have good contacts with other aquariums who are more than happy to take them off our hands and display these beautiful creatures in their much larger tanks. In return we get baby rays captive bred from other aquariums that we grow on and put on display as juveniles for a few years until they outgrow us and need to move on. It's a sharing and caring cycle.

The picture is a young Thornback Ray we are currently beefing up in our tanks off display. At the moment they are a bit too small to go into our larger tanks, and a bit too big to go into any of our smaller tanks. They are feeding well and have grown well these past few months too, so I'm confident it won't be too long until they're big enough to compete with food with the likes of the dogfish and massive plaice that already occupy their new home.. Look out for them in this Aquarium soon!

Not the information you were looking for? Try MarLIN.ac.uk