19 thoughts on “Dance of the baby stringrays”

  2. So their eyes can maybe see up and also see down? It looks like they have eyes on their undersides too.

    2. I am wondering now if those paired things on the underside are its nostrils. It makes sense for them to sniff the bottom.

      1. That makes sense to me. The species I’m most familiar with, by way of being an angler, is the Atlantic Stingray, which feeds on crustaceans and bivalves in tidal estuaries, mangrove tidal swamps and other inland and coastal waters they’re a bottom feeding, shallow water species. It would makes sense for them to have nostrils on the ventral side of their bodies. I’m sure those spots must be some kind of olfactory sensory organ.

  3. The legs got me too. Very … well, tetrapod. Clearly our walking habits go back a long way.

    1. I’m sure you must have seen footage of frogfish walking, but if not, be sure to Google them.

      1. Frogfish – oh, they’re practically cousins. Try some elasmobranchs, which are a good stretch more distantly related.
        I thought carefully when I chose the word “tetrapod”. I don’t know much about movement patterns in agnatans and acraniate vertebrates to push the property that far back, but I do think it’s either a shared-derived or shared-ancestral trait for at least the tetrapods, if not somewhat deeper in the vertebrate radiation.

        1. Ah, now I see what direction you’re going in. Very cool walking shark!

          I don’t seem to remember anything like limbs on lancelets…but then I don’t remember much about them at all… 🙄

          But–chordate, not vertebrate, no?

          1. “I don’t seem to remember anything like limbs on lancelets…”…let alone, tunicates! 😀

          2. Sorry, did I say vertebrates? Well, I was floundering around a bit in the agnatha and trying to remember if there were extant acraniate vertebrates too.
            I’m trying to remember where the conodonts fit now.

          3. Whatever the case, you’ve obviously forgotten more than I’ve ever known in the first place. 😉 (And it’s probably not forgotten so much as buried inside there someplace…)

  6. Did they dance to the lovely tune or was the music added to the video? Just wonder.

    Well, I should really find out how stingrays hear first. 🙂

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