Ray

Cosma / Communication / Knowledge / Realm / Terrestrial / Life / Animal / Vertebrate / Ray
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Introduction1

Deep Marine Scenes (YouTube Channel)
Deep Marine Scenes (Facebook)

Dictionary

ray : any of an order (Rajiformes) of usually marine cartilaginous fishes (such as stingrays and skates) having the body flattened dorsoventrally, the eyes on the upper surface, and enlarged pectoral fins fused with the head — Merriam-Webster   See also   OneLook

Encyclopedia

Ray is a superorder of cartilaginous fish scientifically known as Batoidea. They and their close relatives, the sharks, comprise the subclass Elasmobranchii. Rays are the largest group of cartilaginous fishes, with well over 600 species in 26 families. Rays are distinguished by their flattened bodies, enlarged pectoral fins that are fused to the head, and gill slits that are placed on their ventral surfaces. — Wikipedia

Ray (Encyclopædia Britannica)

Rays (Florida Museum of Natural History)

Rays, Skates and Sawfish (One Zoom)
Rays (WolframAlpha)

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Inspiration

Diving Underwater With Elusive Devil Rays (Seeker VR, YouTube 360° Video)
Dive with Giant Manta Rays in Mexico (BBC Earth, YouTube 360° Video)

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Innovation

Science

Ichthyology, also called fish science, is the branch of zoology devoted to the study of fish, including jawless fish (Agnatha), cartilaginous fish (Chondrichthyes) and bony fish (Osteichthyes). According to FishBase, 33,400 species of fish had been described as of October 2016, with approximately 250 new species described each year. — Wikipedia

Ichthyology (Encyclopædia Britannica)

FishBase (R. Froese & D. Pauly)
Eschmeyer’s Catalog of Fishes (California Academy of Sciences)

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Preservation

Museum

Sharks & Rays (Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History)

Library

DDC: 597.3 Elasmobranchii: Sharks, Rays, etc. (Library Thing)
Subject: Rays (Library Thing)

Subject: Rays (Open Library)

LCC: QL638.R88 Rays (UPenn Online Books)
Subject: Rays (UPenn Online Books)

LCC: QL638.R88 Rays (Library of Congress)
Subject: Rays (Library of Congress)

Subject: Rays (WorldCat)

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Participation

Education

MERLOT: Multimedia Educational Resource for Learning and Online Teaching
OER Commons: Open Educational Resources

Community

Occupation

Zoologists and Wildlife Biologists (CareerOneStop, U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration)

Organization

American Elasmobranch Society
American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists
Zoological Association of America
Association of Zoos and Aquariums

News

Ichthyology & Herpetology (American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists)
Rays (bioRxiv: Preprint Server for Biology, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory)
Rays (JSTOR)

Government

Fish & Sharks (Northeast Fisheries Science Center, NOAA Fisheries)


More News …

Phys.org - latest science and technology news stories Phys.org internet news portal provides the latest news on science including: Physics, Nanotechnology, Life Sciences, Space Science, Earth Science, Environment, Health and Medicine.

  • Shark face study uncovers 400-million-year-old...
    on May 11, 2026 at 9:20 pm

    Most of what scientists know about face development comes from studies in bony vertebrates such as mice, chickens, and zebrafish. However, their evolutionary counterparts, cartilaginous fishes, have remained largely unexplored. This gap has limited our understanding of how facial structures evolved at the origin of jawed vertebrates.

  • One fifth of flowering plant evolutionary history...
    on May 8, 2026 at 1:20 pm

    In a new study published in the journal Science, researchers from the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, ZSL (Zoological Society of London) and their international collaborators including Boise State University present the first global assessment of risk to the angiosperm (flowering plants) tree of life, warning that more than a fifth of all angiosperm evolutionary history is at risk of extinction.

  • A skull full of surprises: Discovering the...
    on May 5, 2026 at 11:10 pm

    A new study in Proceedings of the Royal Society B reveals the surprising neurological landscape of fish brains. Harvard researchers map the internal structures of ray-finned fishes' brains in 3D detail, discovering brain size and shape, as well as the endocasts, vary far more than expected.

  • Scientists use lasers to determine the age of...
    on May 4, 2026 at 11:40 am

    Not many scientific studies sound like a Bond film, but ours really does involve lasers, sharks and doctors (of research, not the evil kind).

  • Europe's seafloor fishing looks profitable until...
    on April 28, 2026 at 10:00 pm

    The first study to measure the full economic value of bottom trawling in Europe's waters calculates that the destructive fishing practice imposes up to €16 billion annually in net costs to society. The research is published in the journal Ocean & Coastal Management.

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Related

Here are links to pages about closely related subjects.

Knowledge Realm

Terrestrial   (Earth)

Sphere Land, Ice, Water (Ocean), Air, Life (Cell, Gene)
Ecosystem Forest, Grassland, Desert, Arctic, Aquatic

Tree of Life
Microorganism Virus
Prokaryote Archaea, Bacteria
Eukaryote Protist, Fungi, Algae, Protozoa (Tardigrade)
Plant Flower, Tree
Animal
Invertebrate
Cnidaria Coral, Jellyfish
Cephalopod Cuttlefish, Octopus
Crustacean Lobster, Shrimp
Arachnid Spider, Scorpion
Insect Ant, Bee, Beetle, Butterfly
Vertebrate
Fish Seahorse, Ray, Shark
Amphibian Frog, Salamander
Reptile Turtle, Tortoise, Dinosaur
Bird Penguin, Ostrich, Owl, Crow, Parrot
Mammal Platypus, Bat, Mouse, Rabbit, Goat, Giraffe, Camel, Horse, Elephant, Mammoth
Walrus, Seal, Polar Bear, Bear, Panda, Cat, Tiger, Lion, Dog, Wolf
Cetacean Whale, Dolphin
Primate Monkey, Chimpanzee, Human

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Notes

1.   The resources on this page are are organized by a classification scheme developed exclusively for Cosma.