Aetoplatea Valenciennes in J. P. Müller & Henle, 1841
Dasyatis Gray, 1851
Phanerocephalus Gratzianov, 1906
Pteroplatea J. P. Müller & Henle, 1837
The butterfly rays are the
rays forming the genus Gymnura and the family Gymnuridae. They are found in warm oceans worldwide, and occasionally in
estuaries.
The body of butterfly rays is flattened and surrounded by an extremely broad disc formed by the
pectoral fins, which merge in front of the head. They have a very short, thread-like, tail.[1] They are up to 4 m (13 ft) in width.[2]
McEachran et al. (1996) place the butterfly rays in the subfamily Gymnurinae of the family
Dasyatidae,[3] but this article follows
FishBase and
ITIS in treating them as a family.[4][5]
Species
There are currently 12 species in this genus (others are considered
synonyms):[2][6][7]
^McEachran JD, Dunn KA, Miyake T (1996). "Interrelationships of the batoid fishes (Chondrichthyes: Batoidea)". In Stiassny ML, Parenti LR, Johnson GD (eds.). Interrelationships of Fishes. Academic Press.
^Froese, Rainer, and Daniel Pauly, eds. (2006).
"Gymnuridae" in
FishBase. January 2006 version.