#chondrichthyes

[every-day-creechur]

Twineye Skate Raja miraletus

Found in the Mediterranean and Atlantic coast of Africa. Raja are bottom-dwellers that are active during both day and night, and typically feed on molluscs, crustaceans and fish.

image by danijel1

[jellyfishmakeoutparty]

I love butterfly rays because half of the images of them online come in two varieties and it’s

a) a baybey!

b) I know what you are.

[life-on-our-planet]

"The magic of the mobula ray migration." ©Aidan Bedford

[lupineshieldmaiden]

chimaera pngs ༄.°

send requests .ᐟ.ᐟ જ⁀➴ ✉

[marinebioblr]

Flight of the mini-mantas! These little devils are mobulas, which are cousins of the more famous manta ray. They are known to migrate together in enormous schools of hundreds or even tens of thousands of individuals (especially off of Baja California Sur), and have no spines like a stingray. As such they are completely harmless, and beautiful to watch underwater.

[snototter]

A bat ray (Myliobatis californica) off the coast of Los Angeles, California

by divindk

[protectoursharks]

I learned a cool thing about sharks at the aquarium and was wondering if I could tell you? I mean, you probably already know it. But apparently the reason a lot of shark incidents aren't fatal are because the shark takes a bite, realizes what they're biting isn't food, and so they basically go "my bad, you aren't food" and leave. It was a little "test bite" and the test revealed that what they were biting wasn't food so they left. Or they were just biting because they felt threatened and they weren't actually looking to kill the human, just get the fellow apex predator to please leave them alone. This is why we can touch little sharks in some aquariums, because they're well-fed so not gonna test bite us and they also have a safe escape and so aren't going to bite the people in an effort to be left alone, because they don't like picking fights and if they have an easy out, they'll take it.

I don't know, I just thought this was so cool.

Yes!

The "Mistaken Identity Hypothesis" proposes that sharks have a hard time differentiating humans from their normal prey from below. They take one bite, realize we're not a seal or turtle, and swim away. However,

Sharks have better eyesight than most people think!

This doesn't explain why there have been attacks in very clear water

You've probably seen videos of sharks attacking their prey; there's a lot of force behind those attacks, sometimes even breaching the water. In most cases, when a shark attacks a human it's with much less force and energy

There have been cases of sharks routinely biting- but not eating- penguins off the coast of South Africa

Sharks aren't mindless killers, they're animals who get curious! If they see something they don't recognize or encounter often, they might just want to take a bite to see what it is.

The simpler reason most sharks don't bite humans twice is because we taste bad.

[have-you-seen-this-animal]

Greenland sharks?

Have you seen the Greenland shark (Somniosus microcephalus)?

I have now

Yes, in photos/videos

Yes, irl

I'm not sure

Voting ended onMay 18