are stingrays sharks in disguise? welcome back to shelby on safari and in today's
video we are going to answer just that by seeing what rays and sharks have in common
as well as what makes rays so unique in fact in honor of father's day I'm gonna tell you about
a cool dance move my dad taught me from a very young age with regards to stingrays
and stay tuned to the end because i'm gonna introduce you to one crazy cool animal that
you have to see to believe so you ready join the safari and let's dive right in
so first up what do rays and sharks actually have in common? well it turns out more than you
might think there in the class chondrichthyes which is no not contradictory that is the class of
cartilaginous fish or fish that have cartilage instead of bones but the relationship goes a
little bit further into the subclassification elasmobranchii which includes sharks rays
and skates. within this subclassification there are a few cool things that they have in common
like nearly a 360 degree field of vision with well-developed eyes they have a tapetum lucidum
which essentially is a fancy word and it's also quite fun to say for a reflective layer
that sits behind the retina so when light comes in light bounces off the tapetum lucidum and
improves the animals sensitivity , if you will in low light situations essentially they can
see better and you may know that some cats eyes seem to glow in the dark as well as a few other
mammals well that's what they have as well ! sadly us humans don't although i wish i did... that'd be
quite cool! and while we're talking about vision no no not that vision that's for another video ! sharks
rays and skates can actually see in color as well and while their vision may sound impressive
which it is, they do actually lack something... a swim bladder! so how do sharks rays and skates regulate
their buoyancy in the water well there's a few different ways but probably the most well-known is
well their liver! yep that's right their liver they have large livers relative to their body
size that are filled with the low density oil the main component of which is squalene now squalene
is surprisingly found in a variety of different products some of which may be in your own home
i recently found out more about this over on my buddy grace's channel which by the way i'll put a
link to that specific video in the description down below so you can check it out after
this one so another thing that helps them stay buoyant is of course their lightweight skeleton
remember this isn't a skeleton that's made out of bones oh no it's made out of cartilage ! remember
that was that fun word in the very beginning that's like contradictory but not : Chondrichthyes
and the fun words don't stop there my friends another thing that rays and sharks have in common
in fact quite a few other animals as well are specialized gel-filled pit organs that
are known as the ampullae of lorenzini these were first described way back in 1697 by the italian
physician stefano lorenzini. it's these ampullae of lorenzini that enable them to detect electrical
fields that are emitted when say other living creatures contract a muscle like a heartbeat isn't
that so cool adaptation to have but also a really cool name to say ampule of lorenzini go on you try
saying it it's really fun all right so we covered some things that sharks and ry's have in common
but what makes stingrays so unique apart from the obvious their pretty impressive tale which
of course we'll get to we'll remember those classifications that we went through earlier
well if we go one step further down into the super order barodier this has over 500 different species
of rays and skates some are as small as four inches while others get up to 20 feet in length
and within that not all rays swim the same way some flap in a bird-like motion and others contort
their entire bodies to glide through the water and as someone who was a swim teacher for many years
i certainly wouldn't have to teach baby rays how to swim they are born fully formed and ready to go
right off the bat no pun intended there with that ray but it should have been a pun intended
now stingrays are the largest members of the rey family and of course there's always one exception
in nature isn't there or a handful it turns out not every stingray does in fact have a sting take
for example the ever impressive manta ray they are the largest ray and get over 2 000 pounds
now many stingrays are bottom dwellers and so they need a way to well protect themselves
from predators and what better way than with a really impressive sting so a shark swimming above
notices the stingray tries to go in for it and the stingray will defend itself they are exceptionally
quick when it comes to defending themselves goes to show that well they've had a lot of time
they become quite specialized with what they do in fact these have been around for over 150
million years since the jurassic period isn't that nuts but anyways back to the stinging
that is in fact the dance move that my dad taught me from a very young age
it turns out my local beach growing up was quite the stingray hangout as well
and so whenever entering or leaving the water in the shallows of the beach he would teach me to do
the stingray shuffle easy to do easy to remember and in fact over the many many many many many
many many years not to age myself or anything i'm very fortunate enough to have never been stung by
stingray knock on wood and that's because the grey shuffle is literally just shuffling your
feet along the ocean floor we'll find out next why this tends to let stingrays know
that you're on the way as i mentioned a lot of species of stingray tend to be bottom dwellers
burying themselves underneath the sand in fact they're quite the masters of camouflage not nearly
as expert like as my friend the mimic octopus but still impressive nonetheless because some species
can change the color and the pattern on their body to blend in while others just take the more
simpler route and bury themselves underneath the sand but if they are buried under sand how can
they breathe or respire well they have spiracles that are on top of their head literally just
behind their eyes when the oxygen-rich water is taken in by these it's then passed over the
sensitive guild tissues where the oxygen will then be removed this water will then flow out
of the body via the gill slits that are on the bottom or the underside of the ray now they just
don't bury themselves under the sand to hide from predators or to chill out stingrays eat a variety
of different things worms fishes crustaceans clams that's right crustaceans and clams i said but how
does an animal that has no bones eat something that has such a hard exoskeleton well it turns
out that they have most powerful jaws that can crush through these in fact they'll find them by
digging in the sand to actively hunt them out because remember they have them pulae of lauren
zeni now in the very beginning i mentioned this really cool animal that you have to see to believe
and that's because as we know now sharks and rays are actually related although have some striking
differences like they're pectoral fins rays have quite big elongated ones do they not however there
is an animal that definitely looks like a solid mix between sharks and rays meet the guitar fish
it's in fact a species of rey but doesn't it look like a shark i think they are most cool do
you let me know down in the comments below what your favorite species of rey is is it a manta
ray or the round stingray actually while you're here you might as well click on the video here
checking out another amazing animal of the deep that has some pretty impressive connections to
a dalek what go on click it i'll see you over there thanks for watching you