The Chinese stingray, ''Hemitrygon sinensis'', is a little-known

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

stingray Stingrays are a group of sea rays, which are cartilaginous fish related to sharks. They are classified in the suborder Myliobatoidei of the order Myliobatiformes and consist of eight families: Hexatrygonidae (sixgill stingray), Plesiobatidae ( ...

in the

family Family (from la, familia) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its ...

Dasyatidae, found in the northwestern

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...

off the coasts of

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

and

Korea Korea ( ko, 한국, or , ) is a peninsular region in East Asia. Since 1945, it has been divided at or near the 38th parallel, with North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) comprising its northern half and South Korea (Republic o ...

. This species is characterized by a band of small

dermal denticle A fish scale is a small rigid plate that grows out of the skin of a fish. The skin of most jawed fishes is covered with these protective scales, which can also provide effective camouflage through the use of reflection and colouration, as we ...

s running along the upper surface of its diamond-shaped

pectoral fin Fins are distinctive anatomical features composed of bony spines or rays protruding from the body of a fish. They are covered with skin and joined together either in a webbed fashion, as seen in most bony fish, or similar to a flipper, as ...

disc, from the snout to the tail spine. It can grow to across and long. The Chinese stingray is taken incidentally in

bottom trawl Bottom trawling is trawling (towing a trawl, which is a fishing net) along the seafloor. It is also referred to as "dragging". The scientific community divides bottom trawling into benthic trawling and demersal trawling. Benthic trawling is towing ...

s and is one of the three most commonly marketed stingrays in China. At present, the

International Union for Conservation of Nature The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN; officially International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natu ...

(IUCN) has assessed its conservation status as endangered.

Taxonomy

The Chinese stingray was originally described as ''Trygon sinensis'' by Austrian

Franz Steindachner Franz Steindachner (11 November 1834 in Vienna – 10 December 1919 in Vienna) was an Austrian Zoology, zoologist, ichthyologist, and herpetologist. He published over 200 papers on fishes and over 50 papers on reptiles and amphibians. Steindachne ...

, in an 1892 volume of the

scientific journal In academic publishing, a scientific journal is a periodical publication intended to further the progress of science, usually by reporting new research. Content Articles in scientific journals are mostly written by active scientists such as s ...

''Denkschriften der Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftlichen Classe der Kaiserlichen Akademie der Wissenschaften in Wien''. The

type specimen In biology, a type is a particular wiktionary:en:specimen, specimen (or in some cases a group of specimens) of an organism to which the scientific name of that organism is formally attached. In other words, a type is an example that serves to a ...

is a male across, collected from

Shanghai Shanghai (; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four direct-administered municipalities of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the Huangpu River flow ...

, China.Nishida, K. and K. Nakaya (1990). "Taxonomy of the genus ''Dasyatis'' (Elasmobranchii, Dasyatididae) from the North Pacific." in Pratt, H.L., S.H. Gruber and T. Taniuchi. ''Elasmobranchs as living resources: advances in the biology, ecology, systematics, and behaviour, and the status of fisheries.'' NOAA Technical Report, NMFS 90. pp. 327–346.

Distribution and habitat

The Chinese stingray has been recorded along the coasts of China and Korea in the

Yellow Yellow is the color between green and orange on the spectrum of light. It is evoked by light with a dominant wavelength of roughly 575585 nm. It is a primary color in subtractive color systems, used in painting or color printing. In the R ...

, Bohai, and

East China Sea The East China Sea is an arm of the Western Pacific Ocean, located directly offshore from East China. It covers an area of roughly . The sea’s northern extension between mainland China and the Korean Peninsula is the Yellow Sea, separated b ...

s. Found on or near the bottom, this species apparently inhabits cold, inshore waters less than deep.

Description

The

disc of the Chinese stingray is diamond-shaped and almost as long as wide, with slightly convex leading and trailing margins. The snout is triangular and projecting, comprising a quarter of the disc length. The eyes are of moderate size and closely followed by a pair of

spiracle Spiracle or spiraculum may refer to: * Spiracle (arthropods), opening in the exoskeletons of some arthropods * Spiracle (vertebrates), openings on the surface of some vertebrates * Spiraculum, a genus of land snails in family Cyclophoridae Cycl ...

s. The mouth is bow-shaped and contains five

papilla Papilla (Latin, 'nipple') or papillae may refer to: In animals * Papilla (fish anatomy), in the mouth of fish * Basilar papilla, a sensory organ of lizards, amphibians and fish * Dental papilla, in a developing tooth * Dermal papillae, part of ...

e on the floor, consisting of an anterior row of three and a posterior row of two. The tooth rows number 37 in the upper jaw and 40 in the lower jaw; the teeth of adult males are pointed, while those of juveniles and females are blunt. The whip-like tail measures not quite twice the length of the disc and bears both dorsal and ventral fin folds behind a stinging tail spine; the ventral fold measures less than half as long as the disc. Some individuals lack a tail spine. The dorsal surface is roughened by a band of small

s, extending from the snout to the base of the tail. This species is gray above, lightening to yellowish towards the fin margins, and lighter below. The Chinese stingray attains a disc width of , and a total length of for males and for females.

Biology and ecology

Little is known of the Chinese stingray's natural history. It is presumably

aplacental viviparous Ovoviviparity, ovovivipary, ovivipary, or aplacental viviparity is a term used as a "bridging" form of reproduction between egg-laying oviparous and live-bearing viviparous reproduction. Ovoviviparous animals possess embryos that develop insi ...

like other members of its family.

Human interactions

The Chinese stingray is often caught incidentally in

s along the Chinese coast and marketed for human consumption, though it is of low value. It is one of the three most common

species sold in China. This species is subject to intense fishing pressure within its range, but specific utilization or population data is lacking, exacerbated by the difficulty of accurately identifying stingray species. The

(IUCN) has listed the Chinese stingray as endangered.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q138234 Hemitrygon Taxa named by Franz Steindachner Fish described in 1892