I think it's gonna be the' better looking rays' that gonna be the standard. It may have been geography and survival in the past, but man has thrown a spanner in the works of evolution. Like the arowana and other beauty based animals, their beauty and profitability is going be the deciding factor which see their number exceed their wild cousins.
When was the last time you saw a wildlife channel describing the secrets of the chicken in the forest or wild galloping cows on the horizon, but look at their numbers compared to their wild cousins.
Man's selective captive breeding is probably gonna shape the species much more than geography, until a point where only captive breed rays can match the high standards expected by the hobbyist.
The Amazon is shrinking. Beautiful rays will probably live in tanks long after the Amazon is deforested and cities build over what once was the rain forest.
