Marbled Ray

Taeniurops meyeni

Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Elasmobranchii
Order: Myliobatiformes
Family: Dasyatidae
Genus: Taeniurops
Species: Taeniurops meyeni

The marbled ray (Taeniurops meyeni), also called the round ribbontail or blotched fantail ray, is one of the largest stingrays on Indo-Pacific reefs. Its thick, nearly circular disc can exceed 1.6 m across and is covered in a mottled pattern of black and grey, while the short tail carries one or more venomous spines and a deep fin fold underneath.

This ray spends much of the day resting on sand beside reef slopes, sometimes partly buried, and becomes more active at night as it hunts bottom-dwelling fish, crabs, shrimps and molluscs. It is often accompanied by remoras or small jacks, and divers occasionally see it alongside smaller relatives such as the blue-spotted maskray. It is listed as Vulnerable, mainly because of fishing pressure.

In the Philippines the marbled ray is encountered on sandy reef edges and channels across the archipelago, from Batangas to the Visayas and Palawan. Approach slowly and stay off the bottom: a resting ray tolerates calm divers well, but a startled one lifts off in a cloud of sand.

Photo: Ryan McMinds, CC BY 4.0, via iNaturalist