Mobula

Mobula is a genus of rays in the family Mobulidae that is found worldwide in tropical and warm, temperate seas. Some authorities consider this to be a subfamily of the Myliobatidae. Species of this genus are often collectively referred to as "devil rays", "flying mobula", or simply "flying rays", due to their propensity for breaching, sometimes in a spectacular manner. These rays gather in groups and leap out of the surface into the air up to around 2 m before splashing back into the water.

Mobula

Nick Bonzey from Corvallis, OR · CC BY-SA 2.0 · 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
devil rayPBDB
Sits inside
MobulidaePBDB
Diet
suspension feeder, carnivorePBDB
Life habit
nektonicPBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB

Time the record covers

At least 35 million years on record.

The record covers at least 41.03 Mya to 5.333 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 48.07 Mya to 3.6 Mya.

Eocene — about 1 of 52 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 6 of 52 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 42 of 52 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 3 of 52 occurrences49–47 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences47–46 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences46–44 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences44–43 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences43–41 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences41–40 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences35–34 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences34–32 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences32–30 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences30–29 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences29–27 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences27–26 Mya — about 1 occurrence26–24 Mya — about 1 occurrence24–23 Mya — about 1 occurrence23–21 Mya — about 1 occurrence21–20 Mya — about 2 occurrences20–18 Mya — about 3 occurrences18–17 Mya — about 3 occurrences17–15 Mya — about 3 occurrences15–14 Mya — about 3 occurrences14–12 Mya — about 5 occurrences12–10 Mya — about 5 occurrences10–8.9 Mya — about 6 occurrences8.9–7.3 Mya — about 6 occurrences7.3–5.8 Mya — about 4 occurrences5.8–4.3 Mya — about 3 occurrences4.3–2.7 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences41.03 Mya5.333 Mya49 Mya2.7 Mya

52 occurrences of Mobula 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

52 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

22 formations

Chucunaque — 9.13°N, 78.75°WGatun — 9.35°N, 79.84°WCantaure — 11.97°N, 70.02°WCantaure — 11.94°N, 70.02°WUscari — 9.57°N, 82.57°WYorktown — 35.36°N, 76.82°WChandler Bridge — 33.03°N, 80.27°WAngostura — 0.88°N, 78.83°WAshley — 32.95°N, 80.18°WAshley — 32.97°N, 80.20°WLagos-Portimão — 37.08°N, 8.28°WLagos-Portimão — 37.08°N, 8.67°WPungo River — 35.40°N, 76.80°WTrent — 35.07°N, 77.15°WBaripada Limestone — 21.93°N, 86.72°ERosarito Beach — 32.12°N, 116.80°WEsbarrondadoiro — 38.17°N, 8.17°WUitpa — 12.03°N, 71.43°WCalvert — 38.16°N, 76.83°WChoptank — 38.16°N, 76.83°WOnzole — 0.97°N, 79.61°WDeist — 51.19°N, 4.46°ECatahoula — 31.66°N, 88.66°WGaindorf — 48.49°N, 15.72°ESternberg — 53.67°N, 11.82°E

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The named rock units Mobula has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 9 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Mobula and its relatives

Miocene

Where Mobula and its relatives were recorded in the Miocene.

Found in the same rock

1,110 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 33 sites for Mobula, 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

26 references

Each of the 52 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. 14 further references are not listed. Entries link to doi.org where the Paleobiology Database holds an identifier, and to its own record where it does not. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content2

Picture of Mobula

Credit
Nick Bonzey from Corvallis, OR
Licence
CC BY-SA 2.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

CT scan

Licence
not stated by the source
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Mobula sp. · usnm:fishes:205397

Smithsonian Open Access was 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 itMobulidae through timeFormations of the MioceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Rafinesque 1810