The Flappy, Happy, Stingy Rays!! :)

                                                
Hey everybody! Well you know me! I am here to have a fun learning experience about RAYS! Yay! I can't wait, can you? OK! I am going to teach you about.....

• I will compare and contrast rays to sharks! I blogged about sharks before! ( This will be fun! )
• I will describe the ray's body and tail!
• What do they eat and how do they get their food!
• The ray's defenses!
• Some fun interesting facts!
• Last but not least.... The Southern Stingray!
• The difference between skates and rays!

So now you know what you shall be learning about! Yay, FUN! So, rays have tails that electrocute for defence! So you better watch out of rays because you might get stung by it horrifying tail! But don't worry, at the Aquarium they cut the tails off so they don't kill you!  You can pet them as much as you like! :)
  Comparing Rays to Sharks!!

1.  They both have cartilage skeletons!   
2. Sharks and Rays both have jaws!
3. Some species of Sharks and Rays are endangered!
4. There are around 400 species of Sharks and 400 species of Rays!

Rays

 

Sharks

Contrasting Rays to Sharks!!

1. Rays have more flattened bodies while the Sharks have long, slender bodies!
2. They  have a different way of using their tail, Sharks use it to swim and Rays use it for balance and defence!
3. They use their fins in different ways, Sharks use their tail to lift and steer, while Rays use it to swim!
4. Rays have their gills on their underside of their body and Sharks have it on their sides.

                                     
The Rays Body and Tail!!

Most of the Rays, Stingrays to be specific, tail is used for it's defence. They will sting an enemy with their poisonous stinging tail that gives electric shocks! Their tails can range from short, stubby ones to amazingly long that are up to 10 ft. long! Wow!



Their body is smooth and flat! They have gills on their underside of their body along with their mouth. Their eyes on on top of their head. Also, Rays have large, flappy fins that they use for swimming!  A cool thing about them is that they can be shaped like an oval, a cirlce, a triangle , or a wedge-shaped body! Fantastic!




As you can see the MANY cool shaped rays that can be out there! I really like the designs that they have too! They can have poka-dots, circles, lines, and eights!

What do Rays Eat and How do They Get It?!?!

Rays are carnivores and usually eat crustaceans, mollusks, and worms!! Rays mostly hunt their prey at the ocean floor, they dislodge it from the floor, grab it, and then crush it with their teeth.



Isn't SO cute?!?!??  It is! ;)


What are the Rays Defences!??!? Hmm....
Well, is that so hard! The Rays use their tail as defence!  Stingrays use it and regular Rays use their poisonous tail, or they use their whip-like tail to lacerate their enemy! Also camouflage is another one of their BEST defences!


What's the Difference about Skates and Rays?!
You probably wonder what a skate is right? Well, a skate is a cartilaginous fish. There are 200 described species. Skates take a long time to grow and mature, similar to Sharks. Also in some parts of the world, due to overfishing, they are endangered. They are very similar to the Rays.



A Picture of a Skate

1. Rays are more of a kite shape while Skates are more  triangular or roundish.
2. Rays are bigger than Skates, usually.
3. They both defend their selves differently, Skates use their thorns on their back and rays use their tail and camouflage.
4. They give birth differently, Skates lay eggs and Rays give live birth.
5. Rays are more known than Skates.

Awesome Facts about Southern Stingrays!!

• Found in Tropical and Subtropical waters.
• They are very shy animals.
• They are not aggressive animals.

Goodbye everyone! Thank you so much for reading my blog! Blog to you soon!!! :)

The Facts You Did NOT Know About Those Deadly Sharks!

                             

Heyyyyyyyyyyyy! It's Sofia! And I am going to talk about.......SHARKS!! Most people think of sharks in a horrid manner. Perhaps like Jaws! But not all sharks are like that! Shocking Right?!???!                             

                                                

When you see a Shark you probably think it feels all Gooey Ooey and Slimey BUT, its feels like sandpaper actually! Especially if you have the nerves to feel it from head to tail it REALLY feels like sandpaper!They feel like sandpaper because of there scales! Sharks are shaped like a torpedo usually and that is one of the reasons why it's SO  fast! Don't you wish you were shaped like torpedo now!

Shark Scales Feel Like Sandpaper

Shall we talk about there teeth!??! Yes we shall!!! Did you know that sharks have 3 rows of teeth? Well they do! Cool right! If one of there teeth fall out, the one from the next row will replace it. That really help because sharks can lose up to 35,000 teeth in a life time!

Shark teeth are really sharp!

Baby sharks are called pups. When I here pups I think of puppies but, there are no similarities! Sharks can have 2 - 100 pups per group of babies. Most  sharks lay eggs and don't give live birth but, some do!
             

You want to know what we are going to do???? WE are going to talk about a Sharks Sensory System!BIG words right!!! Well, it's like there senses.  Let's label them!  Enjoy .........
    Smell of a Shark!!                   

Some Sharks can detect as little as one part per million of blood in the ocean! So that means that if there were one million people in the ocean and if one of them was bleeding, the shark could smell that one person out of all those people! AMAZING! So don't go in the water with a cut because you could be that un-lucky one! BE CAREFUL!  Most sharks have REALLY good smell!  While other are not so good! So those little fish that are under them must smell bad if they don't even bother to try to eat them. After all.. Part of liking your food is the smell of the food! You better not were your best cologne or perfume!     

  Sight of a Shark!!
Sharks eyes are adapted to the water life around them. It is just like how are eyes are adapted to the air and not to the water. We can open our eyes under water but it burns to most people. When we go under water to jump in the pool and we don't have goggles, we use our eyes lids to close our eyes. Sharks have eye lids but, they don't blink under water because the water around them cleans there eyes. But,  if they are in the air. But sharks like the Great White don't have this membrane, also known as there eye lids to protect them if they are hunting, in the air, or have prey like stingrays so they don't get stung. They have good night-vision while making them colorblind. So they don't even know what color the water is! Suckers! :) Because I know what color it is!!! Blue or dark blue to a clear color or kinda green!



         Sharks Hearing! 
   Even though it is VERY hard to test shark's hearing, they could have a super sharp, crisp sense of hearing if they can hear prey from very far away.  They have small openings in there head leading to the inner ear by a thin channel. You really cant see it!

              Sharks Cartilage!
Sharks have skeletons made out of cartilage like other fish like snakes and rays. Also like Lampreys and Hagfish too! Cartilage is flexible and durable, yet has about half the density of bone. So it is lighter than a bone.  So wonder sharks are so fast! And did you know sharks have no ribs? That's too bad.. you can't make shark back ribs! LOL! Just kidding!!


               A FUN SHARK FACT IS..

• There are over 400 species and 30 of them are a threat to humans!                                              

 Well thanks for reading my DEADLY SHARKS blog post part 1!!! Let Bugs Bunny say goodbye to you! And a Bye from me too! Byeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! :) Thanks Again!