Manta and Rhinoptera

Fish - Chordata

Basal Chordata

Chondrichthyes

Acipenseriformes

Placodermi

Siluriformes - Acanthodii

Tetrapoda

Reptilia/Amniota

Lepidosauromorpha

Cephalerpeton clade

Captorhinidae

Milleretta Limnoscelis clade

Bolosaurus Diadectes clade

Turtle Pareiasaur clade

Fenestrasauria • Pterosauria

Protosquamata

Squamata

Archosauromorpha

Basal Archosauromorpha

qiilinyu and manta ventral view compared

Manta birostris (formerly Cephalopterus manta, Bancroft 1829; up to 5.5m in length) is the extant manta ray. Traditoinally a derived member of the guitarfish, skates and rays clade, here Manta nests with the Late Silurian basal placoderm, Qilinyu. Manta has a diet of planktonic prey. It is not a bottom feeder. The cephalic fins are like the lobes of cownose rays (Rhinoptera), but detached anteriorly.

Rbinoptera skeleton latera and ventral view

Rhinoptera marginata (aka Mylobates marginata, Geoffery Saint-Hilaire 1817) is the Lusitanian cownose ray, a likely close relative of Manta, but with attached, but mobile, labial cartilages. A current lack of good skeletal data prevents its addition to the LRT. In the above xray the pectoral fins are wrapped ventrall causing confusion..

Bancroft EN 1829. On the Fish known in Jamaica as the Sea-Devil. The Zoological Journal. 4: 444–457.

Geoffery Saint-Hilaire E 1817. Poissons du Nil, de la mer Rouge et de la Méditerranée. In: Description de l'Egypte ou recueil des observations et des recherches qui ont été faites en Égypte pendant l'expedition de l'Armée français, publié par les ordres de sa Majesté-L'Empereur Napoléon le Grand. (Imprimerie Impériale). Paris. Histoire Naturelle. v. 1 (part 1). Pls. 18-27.

Rafinesque CS 1810. Caratteri di alcuni nuovi generi e nuove specie di animali e piante della sicilia, con varie osservazioni sopra i medisimi. Per le stampe di Sanfilippo: Palermo, Italy. pp. 105, 20 fold. Pl., online

Swenson JD et al. 2018. How the Devil Ray Got Its Horns: The Evolution and Development of Cephalic Lobes in Myliobatid Stingrays (Batoidea: Myliobatidae). Front. Ecol. Evol, published online November 13, 2018; doi: 10.3389/fevo.2018.00181

White WT et al. 2018. Phylogeny of the manta and devilrays (Chondrichthyes: mobulidae), with an updated taxonomic arrangement for the family. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, 2018, 182, 50–75.

wiki/Manta
wiki/Rhinoptera

Placodermi

Drepanaspis

Qilinyu

Manta