Stingray Essay

Stingray are newer to the geological time scale, to barely beginning in the Early Triassic period which are from the class of Chondrichthyes. As well that the Chondrichthyes are ancient sharks from the silurian period up until now but have slowly decease in size and shape. Stingrays have shown signs of being one of the evolution of the shark from the 422 period, from its anatomy view of point. The Jaw structure between the shark and the stingray are very similar it's joined bone, and shape to have the same movement. The teeth of the ray are “Plate-like teeth adapted for crushing prey” stated in Ichthyology: Ray and Skate Basics by florida museum of natural history. According to Jim Wharton on beachchairscientist.com he states that sharks and stingray belong to group of fish called elasmobranch, which have skeleton of cartilage and 5-7 gill slits. Their cartilage gives the structure of the nose and easy movement of flexibly to swim smoothly. Even the shape of a stingray is like a flatten shark since it has fins at the bottom as well mouth and nose at the bottom. There is a hybrid of the two, it is called the Bowmouth guitarfish, which later could possible turn to stingrays or skates. Some of sharks and stingray give live birth or lay eggs to reproduce depending on its location and family it is part of.
With the possible reproduction through eggs came skates who only lay eggs which they evolved from stingrays to blend into the sand better.
It seems as the water lowered in the past sharks become to big for hunting in the shallow so they had to grow smaller to get its prey so it slowly began to flatten to get the sting ray.
As the flatten shark came upon and began to hide itself in the sand from others also to get its food, the population began to to grow. It made the larger sharks more targeted by other so their population decrease and evolved to get smaller. To create the stingray that lay in the shallow parts of the shore in the sea to have a new species evolve from the shark. Stingrays are formed but still grow smaller to stay more hidden, to later create skates in the late cretaceous period
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Skates have more of pointed wings to move better since they encounter humans more to keep safe and survive in shallow and deep water. With the increase of human population that has began to explore the sea many skates are being used as sea food in some restaurants. This also affects the stingray since the look so familiar that they are also caught as food and slowly declines the population of them both.