Endangered
Brazilian large-eyed stingray
Hypanus marianae
Brazilian large-eyed stingray is a stingray in the family Dasyatidae (order Myliobatiformes) — Hypanus marianae, recorded as Endangered and tied to Brazil.
Appearance
The tip of the snout is not strongly projecting. The tail measures no longer than 1.5 times the disc width, and tapers to a filament towards the tip. There is a stinging spine on top of the tail, followed by dorsal and ventral fin folds of roughly equal length. The dorsal fold is up to twice as tall as the ventral fold.
This stingray measures up to 40 cm (16 in) across and can be identified by its large eyes, equally long fin folds above and below the tail, and distinctive coloration consisting of various dark brown markings on a yellowish-brown background above, and two pairs of dark brown blotches on a white background below.
Range and habitat
The range of the Brazilian large-eyed stingray extends along the coast of northeastern Brazil from Parcel Manoel Luís off Maranhão state to southern Bahia, though more sampling may reveal a wider distribution for this species. Occurring at depths of 2–15 m (6.6–49.2 ft), adult rays are closely associated with coral or sandstone reefs on the continental shelf, and have also been observed around shipwrecks. Younger rays inhabit nearshore sandy flats and estuaries in addition to reefs.
GBIF currently lists 178 occurrence points. Those points follow where people logged the taxon — museum drawers and surveys included — not a closed range boundary.
Pins are Wikidata “endemic to” fields. Orange dots, when present, are GBIF occurrence tiles — survey bias included.
Diet and breeding
Rays feed on the bottom or in open water depending on the family. Nets and shallow-water fisheries are the usual human contact.
Sharks and rays grow slowly and have few young. A fishery that treats them as bycatch can empty a coastal form.
In crisis
Brazilian large-eyed stingray is Endangered on this catalog because that is the IUCN category stored on Wikidata. Confirm the official criteria and any later count on iucnredlist.org.
Sources
Written for this catalog from the English Wikipedia article on Brazilian large-eyed stingray, Wikidata item Q28927554 and GBIF occurrence geography. Family and order context is original field-guide writing about the group, not a copied assessment of this one species. Wikipedia text is CC BY-SA. Not an IUCN assessment. Counts, when quoted, can change — confirm them on the recovery programme and on iucnredlist.org.
