Taxonomy and Phylogeny
French naturalist Georges Cuvier originally described the yellow stingray as Raia jamaicensis in 1816, in Le Règne Animal distribué d'après son organisation pour servir de base à l'histoire naturelle des animaux et d'introduction à l'anatomie comparée. He based his account on specimens obtained from Jamaica, though no type specimens were designated. Subsequent authors moved this species to the genus Urolophus, and then to the genus Urobatis (some literature still refers to this species as Urolophus jamaicensis). Other common names used for this ray include the yellow-spotted ray, the round ray, and the maid ray.
Nathan Lovejoy's 1996 phylogenetic analysis, based on morphology, found that the yellow stingray is the most basal member of a clade that also contains Pacific Urobatis species and the genus Urotrygon of Central and South America. This finding would render Urobatis polyphyletic, though further study is warranted to elucidate the relationships between these taxa.
Read more about this topic: Yellow Stingray