Rhinobatis: the Shark - Ray guitar shaped fish

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TSS

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Location
Amphoe Muang Ranong, Ranong, Thailand, Thailand
# of dives
5000 - ∞
Guitar fish: guitar rays or guitar sharks?
guitar-fish-facts_orig.jpg


Guitar fish belong to the Rhinobatis genus. "Rhino" is the Greek word for Nose and "batis" the Latin word for ray.

Guitarfish belong to the ray family but are often mistaken for shark or called guitar sharks. They have fins on their back making them look like sharks and swim with using their "shark" tail whereas most other rays prefer flapping their pectoral fins as a propeller.

Like all other rays, their mouth is positioned under their body making it practical to eat sea dwellers but impossible to breathe through their mouth. Instead, their use "vents" situated on their head to inhale and gills to exhale.
Guitar Fish diet
Guitar rays eat crustaceans, fish and molluscs on the sandy patches of the sea. Their flat teeth can crush their prey and even those with hard shells.
Bowmouth guitarfish have rows of shark-teeth looking spikes on their back to protect them from predators.
guitarfish-orig-orig_orig.jpg


Reproduction of the guitar rays
Like other rays, they are ovoviviparous (embryos grow inside an egg in-utero, the egg hatches inside and the mama-ray give birth to 2 to 11 live pups ready to swim away).
Are guitar sharks dangerous?
While Guitarfish can grow up to 3 meters long, they are completely harmless. Their main predator is human (fisheries) as well as Tiger sharks or other big sharks.
bowmouthguitarfish004_orig.jpg

Where can you see Guitarfish
Guitarfish are found in shallow waters of tropical seas. Bowmouth are considered vulnerable to extinction due to overfishing. Shovelnose guitarfish are much flatter and like to burrow in the sand.

Click this link if you want to know more about Marine life we see in Burma.
 
Ancient or modern Greek?

Any link to rhinoceros, rhinophia, or rhinoplasty?

I am no expert in greek but this is what google told me:
The genus name Rhinoceros is a combination of the ancient Greek words ῥίς (ris) meaning 'nose' and κέρας (keras) meaning 'horn of an animal'.
I suppose rhinoplasty is the same nose and plassein (“to shape”) = shaping of the nose :)
 
I am no expert in greek but this is what google told me:
The genus name Rhinoceros is a combination of the ancient Greek words ῥίς (ris) meaning 'nose' and κέρας (keras) meaning 'horn of an animal'.
I suppose rhinoplasty is the same nose and plassein (“to shape”) = shaping of the nose :)
Which is why I thought rhinobatis may be appropriate for shovel nose ray.
 
It would make sense indeed :)
I found this here Pseudobatos productus summary page and thought that was a decent source... but you might be right! It is the nose ray rather than shark ray...
I also checked the word shark in Greek is not Rhine... I guess you can't trust the internet too much :p I'll correct my article. thank you!
 
These confounded my eyes when seeing one for the first time. I saw a young adult in the Red Sea at the very end of a totally uneventful sunrise dive and the three of us were totally spellbound during the encounter and after the dive.
 
I dove with three friendly guitarfish twice in Florida.


Epcot.
 
These confounded my eyes when seeing one for the first time. I saw a young adult in the Red Sea at the very end of a totally uneventful sunrise dive and the three of us were totally spellbound during the encounter and after the dive.
I was about the same. The first guitarfish I saw was a bow mouth and it took me a little while to recognize it. My eye first spotted the shark silhouette shape and "whale-shark like" color and I was Wowed by its gentle swim.
I find shovelnose less spell-bounding but still a pretty cool encounter!
 

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