Dasyatis pastinaca

The common stingray is a species of stingray in the family Dasyatidae, found in the northeastern Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean and Black Seas. It typically inhabits sandy or muddy habitats in coastal waters shallower than 60 m (200 ft), often burying itself in sediment. Usually measuring 45 cm (18 in) across, the common stingray has a diamond-shaped pectoral fin disc slightly wider than long, and a whip-like tail with upper and lower fin folds. It can be identified by its plain coloration and mostly smooth skin, except for a row of tubercles along the midline of the back in the largest individuals.

Dasyatis pastinaca

Florin DUMITRESCU · Public Domain · via Wikipedia/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.

On record

Recorded, not inferred
Also called
common stingrayPBDB
Sits inside
DasyatisPBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Myliobatiformes
Life habit
nektobenthicPBDB, for Myliobatiformes
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Myliobatiformes

Time the record covers

At most 3.7 million years on record.

Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 7.246 Mya and 3.6 Mya, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.

Miocene — about 3 of 4 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 1 of 4 occurrencesPliocene7.3–7.1 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences7.1–7.0 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences7.0–6.8 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences6.8–6.7 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences6.7–6.5 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences6.5–6.4 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences6.4–6.2 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences6.2–6.0 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences6.0–5.9 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences5.9–5.7 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences5.7–5.6 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences5.6–5.4 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences5.4–5.3 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences5.3–5.1 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences5.1–5.0 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences5.0–4.8 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences4.8–4.6 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences4.6–4.5 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences4.5–4.3 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences4.3–4.2 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences4.2–4.0 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences4.0–3.9 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences3.9–3.7 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences3.7–3.6 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences7.75 Mya3.1 Mya

4 occurrences of Dasyatis pastinaca on record, most of them in the Miocene. The Paleobiology Database records this as a living group, and the chart stops with its fossils rather than at the present. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.

When

4 occurrences

These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.

Found in

1 formation

Esbarrondadoiro — 38.17°N, 8.17°WEsbarrondadoiro — 38.11°N, 8.36°WEsbarrondadoiro — 39.30°N, 8.12°W

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Dasyatis pastinaca has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 1 occurrence has no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Dasyatis pastinaca and its relatives

Miocene

Where Dasyatis pastinaca and its relatives were recorded in the Miocene.

Found in the same rock

81 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 4 sites for Dasyatis pastinaca, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too. The 24 sharing the most are listed.

This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.

Entered from

2 references

Each of the 4 occurrences read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. Each entry links to doi.org. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content1

Picture of Dasyatis pastinaca

Credit
Florin DUMITRESCU
Licence
Public Domain
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Dasyatis pastinaca was found in Sketchfab.

Smithsonian Open Access and MorphoSource were not reached for this taxon, so this list is what the others held rather than everything there is.

The description on this site

Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0

This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.

Keep going

What may have been alongside itDasyatis through timeFormations of the MioceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Linnaeus 1758)