Facebook ray ID

[Zoodiver]

Maybe a new species if this is a match??? H. tutul could be a variation of H. leoparda, which makes this a marine ray.

http://www.sci-news.com/biology/science-new-species-venomous-whipray-himantura-01270.html

Marine Biologists Identify New Species of Venomous Whipray
Jul 30, 2013 by Sergio Prostak
A team of researchers from Indonesia, Taiwan and France has described a new whipray species in the family Dasyatidae.
The new species, named Himantura tutul, has been previously confused with other species in the genus, the Leopard Whipray (Himantura leoparda).

Himantura tutul can be recognised by its pattern of leopard-like spots, and its long, thin tail.

The animal measures up to 1.5 m across and 4 m long. It usually has one defensive venomous sting.

The team led by Dr Patrick Berrebi of the ISE-M (Institut des Sciences de l’Evolution de Montpellier) named it after the leopard-like markings on the dorsal surface.

“We chose as epithet of the new species the Malay word tutul, which means ‘spotted’ and which designates the spots of the leopard, Panthera pardus (macan tutul in Malay language),” the biologists explained in a paper reporting the discovery in the journal Comptes Rendus Biologies.

“We propose as the English vernacular name: Fine-spotted Leopard Whipray, to distinguish it from the Leopard Whipray, Himantura leoparda, which has larger spots.”

“The distribution of Himantura tutul comprises the coast of Tanzania in the western Indian Ocean – Pemba Island being the type locality of the new species, the Laccadive Sea, and part of the Indo-Malay archipelago including the Sunda Strait area, the southern coast of Java Island, the Bali Sea, the eastern South China Sea, and the Sulu Sea.”

http://novataxa.blogspot.com/2013/07/himantura-tutul.html

Abstract
It has been previously established that the Leopard Whipray, Himantura leoparda, consists of two genetically isolated, cryptic species, provisionally designated as ‘Cluster 1’ and ‘Cluster 4’ (Arlyza et al., Mol. Phylogenet. Evol. 65 (2013) [1]). Here, we show that the two cryptic species differ by the spotting patterns on the dorsal surface of adults: Cluster-4 individuals tend to have larger-ocellated spots, which also more often have a continuous contour than Cluster-1 individuals. We show that H. leoparda's holotype has the typical larger-ocellated spot pattern, designating Cluster 4 as the actual H. leoparda. The other species (Cluster 1) is described as Himantura tutul sp. nov. on the basis of the nucleotide sequence of a 655-base pair fragment of its cytochrome-oxidase I gene (GenBank accession No. JX263335). Nucleotide synapomorphies at this locus clearly distinguish H. tutul sp. nov. from all three other valid species in the H. uarnak species complex, namely H. leoparda, H. uarnak, and H. undulata. H. tutul sp. nov. has a wide distribution in the Indo-West Pacific, from the shores of eastern Africa to the Indo-Malay archipelago. H. leoparda under its new definition has a similarly wide Indo-West Pacific distribution.
Etymology: We chose as epithet of the new species the Malay word tutul, which means “spotted” and which designates the spots of the leopard, Panthera pardus (“macan tutul” in Malay language). Thus, the new species was named after the leopard-like markings on the dorsal surface of large specimens (> 1000 mm DW). We propose as the English vernacular name: Fine-spotted Leopard Whipray, to distinguish it from the Leopard Whipray, Himantura leoparda, which has larger spots. We propose as the French vernacular name raie léopard à petites taches and as the Malay vernacular name pari tutul kecil.