Taeniurops grabata
| Round fantail stingray | |
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| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Chondrichthyes |
| Order: | Myliobatiformes |
| Family: | Dasyatidae |
| Genus: | Taeniura |
| Species: | T. grabata |
| Binomial name | |
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Taeniura grabata (É. Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, 1817) |
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| Distribution of the round fantail stingray | |
| Synonyms | |
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Trygon grabatus É. Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, 1817 |
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Trygon grabatus É. Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, 1817
The round fantail stingray or round stingray (Taeniura grabata) is a poorly known species of stingray in the family Dasyatidae. It inhabits sandy, muddy, or rocky coastal habitats in the eastern Atlantic Ocean and the southern Mediterranean Sea. This dark-colored ray typically reaches a width of 1 m (3.3 ft), and can be identified by its nearly circular pectoral fin disk, short tail, and mostly bare skin. The round fantail stingray hunts for fishes and crustaceans on the sea floor, and exhibits an aplacental viviparous mode of reproduction. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) does not yet have sufficient information to assess the conservation status of this species.
French naturalist Étienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire originally described the round fantail stingray in 1817 as Trygon grabatus, from the Latin grabatus meaning "bed". His account was published in the first volume of the folio Poissons du Nil, de la mer Rouge et de la Méditerranée. Subsequent authors moved this species to the genus Taeniura. No type specimens are known.
The round fantail stingray is found in the tropical to subtropical waters of the eastern Atlantic from Mauritania to Angola, as well as off the Canary Islands, Madeira, and Cape Verde. This species has also recently colonized the southern Mediterranean Sea, where it is now occasionally sighted from Tunisia to Egypt, with isolated records from off Turkey and Tuscany, Italy. However, it is not one of the many Lessepsian migrants, and reports of this species being present in the Red Sea may be erroneous. Found at depths of 10–300 m (33–984 ft), the round fantail stingray favors coastal sandy, muddy, or rocky areas.
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