Anatomy
Some ancestral characteristics degenerated due to the feeding change. For example, all that remains of the teeth is a small band of vestigial teeth on the lower jaw, almost hidden by the skin. The number and size of their dermal denticles are also reduced. Manta rays have a much thicker mucus body coating than other rays. Their spiracles are small and non-functional, as all water is consumed orally. Mantas have a tail similar to stingrays, but they have lost their stinger and are harmless to divers.
Read more about this topic: Manta Ray
Famous quotes containing the word anatomy:
“Man is a shrewd inventor, and is ever taking the hint of a new machine from his own structure, adapting some secret of his own anatomy in iron, wood, and leather, to some required function in the work of the world.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“I love to see, when leaves depart,
The clear anatomy arrive,”
—Roy Campbell (1902–1957)
“But a man must keep an eye on his servants, if he would not have them rule him. Man is a shrewd inventor, and is ever taking the hint of a new machine from his own structure, adapting some secret of his own anatomy in iron, wood, and leather, to some required function in the work of the world. But it is found that the machine unmans the user. What he gains in making cloth, he loses in general power.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)