{"id":38119,"date":"2025-08-01T00:31:13","date_gmt":"2025-08-01T00:31:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/38119\/"},"modified":"2025-08-01T00:31:13","modified_gmt":"2025-08-01T00:31:13","slug":"it-was-one-of-the-shocks-of-my-life-third-species-of-manta-ray-confirmed-after-decades-of-suspicion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/38119\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cIt was one of the shocks of my life”: third species of manta ray confirmed after decades of suspicion\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"

After 15 years of wondering, scientists have confirmed there are three species of\u00a0manta ray<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Researchers have formally confirmed the Atlantic manta ray (Mobula yarae)\u00a0is a distinct species from the giant or\u00a0oceanic manta<\/a>\u00a0(Mobula birostris) and the reef manta (Mobula alfredi).<\/p>\n

Named after Yara \u2013 a water spirit from Indigenous Brazilian mythology \u2013 these rays can be identified by their size, V-shaped shoulder patches, pale coloured face, and dark spots that are restricted to their abdomen.<\/p>\n

This recognition that Atlantic mantas are their own species confirms what expert\u00a0Andrea Marshall<\/a>\u00a0has suspected for more than 15 years. When she confirmed that giant and reef mantas were separate species \u2013 way back in 2009 \u2013 she also suggested there might be a\u00a0third species<\/a>\u00a0in the Atlantic Ocean.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In 2024, while working on the formal description, Marshall suffered a brain aneurysm and stroke and has been on extended medical leave ever since.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Brazilian researcher\u00a0Nayara Bucair<\/a>\u00a0from the University of S\u00e3o Paulo and\u00a0Jessica Pate<\/a>, a research scientist at\u00a0Marine Megafauna Foundation<\/a>\u00a0(MMF), picked up the mantle from Marshall and completed the formal description.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cAndrea Marshall proposed this new species of manta ray over 15 years ago,\u201d says Pate, who is also the and founder of the\u00a0Florida Manta Project<\/a>. \u201cHowever, to formally describe a species you need to closely examine specimens, which typically means a dead animal.\u201d<\/p>\n

Finding the body of a dead manta ray to analyse is very rare. \u201cThere are not targeted fisheries for mantas in the Atlantic (as there are in the Indo-Pacific),\u201d says Pate. \u201cAlso, manta rays are negatively buoyant, so they sink when they die and their body is made up of cartilage which decomposes rapidly.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"MantaThere are now three distinct species of manta ray: the Atlantic manta, the giant or\u00a0oceanic manta\u00a0(pictured) and the reef manta. Credit: Getty<\/p>\n

In 2017, Marshall was alerted to a manta ray specimen that had been found and the research team raced to make sure it could be preserved and scientifically analysed.\u00a0<\/p>\n

MMF has shared Marshall\u2019s recollections of seeing the Atlantic manta ray for the first time. \u201cIt was one of the shocks of my life to jump into the warm waters off the Yucat\u00e1n in Mexico about a year [after confirming giant and reef mantas were separate species] and come face to face with what I instantly knew was a third species of manta ray,” she said in a\u00a0social media post<\/a>\u00a0in 2022. \u201cIt had been pretty shocking to everyone that there were two species of manta ray and suddenly I had to argue that there were three.\u201d<\/p>\n

For most people, these rays look almost identical to the other species but Marshall was adamant that \u201cthis manta didn’t look like either of them.\u201d Her certainty comes down to her experience, says Pate: \u201cAndrea was able to do it because she had spent 100s of hours carefully observing these creatures.\u201d<\/p>\n

Confirming this is a different species from giant and reef mantas is important for conservation this. \u201cYou can’t protect what you haven’t formally identified,\u201d says Pate. \u201cNow that we\u2019ve proven that this Atlantic manta ray is distinct, we can tailor our research and conservation initiatives to protect the species.\u201d<\/p>\n

Like the other manta species, Atlantic manta rays, which are only found in the western Atlantic and Caribbean, are threatened by boat strikes and entanglement in fishing gear. \u201cManta rays must keep swimming in order to breathe, so if they are caught in a net for too long, they will drown,\u201d says Pate.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The team has shared footage of manta rays that have been hit by speeding boats, including one young male with deep lacerations on his fin. Since the video was taken of his wounds, he has not been seen again.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Footage reveals how boat strikes are a major threat to young mantas. Credit: Marine Megafauna Foundation<\/p>\n

Top image credit: Getty<\/p>\n

More wildlife stories from around the world<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After 15 years of wondering, scientists have confirmed there are three species of\u00a0manta ray.\u00a0 Researchers have formally confirmed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":38120,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[49,48,66,323],"class_list":{"0":"post-38119","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-science","11":"tag-wildlife"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38119","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38119"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38119\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38120"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38119"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38119"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38119"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}