Topic summary
Manta rays
Extracted from the Wikipedia article Manta ray.
Taxonomy
Manta rays are members of the order Myliobatiformes which consists of stingrays and their relatives. The genus Manta is part of the eagle ray familyMyliobatidae, where it is grouped in the subfamily Mobulinae along with the smaller Mobula devil rays. In 2018, an analysis of DNA, and to a lesser degree, morphology, found that Mobula was paraphyletic with respect to the manta rays; that is, some members of genus Mobula are closer related to the members of the genus Manta than they are to fellow Mobula, and the researchers recommended treating Manta as a junior synonym of Mobula.