Urolophus

Life-forms

Superregnum: Eukaryota
Cladus: Unikonta
Cladus: Opisthokonta
Cladus: Holozoa
Regnum: Animalia
Subregnum: Eumetazoa
Cladus: Bilateria
Cladus: Nephrozoa
Superphylum: Deuterostomia
Phylum: Chordata
Subphylum: Vertebrata
Infraphylum: Gnathostomata
Classis: Chondrichthyes
Subclassis: Elasmobranchii
Infraclassis: Euselachii
Division/Cohort: Neoselachii
Subdivision/Subcohort: Batoidea
Superordo: Batomorphii
Ordo: Myliobatiformes
Subordo: Myliobatoidei
Superfamilia: Dasyatoidea
Familia: Urolophidae
Genus: Urolophus
Species: U. armatus – U. aurantiacus – U. bucculentus – U. circularis – U. cruciatus – U. deforgesi – U. expansus – U. flavomosaicus – U. gigas – U. javanicus – U. kaianus – U. kapalensis – U. lobatus – U. mitosis – U. neocaledoniensis – U. papilio – U. paucimaculatus – U. piperatus – U. sufflavus – U. viridis – U. westraliensis – U. orarius

Urolophus is a genus of round rays mostly native to the western Pacific Ocean and the Indian Ocean, though one species occurs in the Pacific waters of the Mexican coast. Müller and Henle erected Urolophus in an 1837 issue of Bericht Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Berlin.[1] The name is derived from the Greek oura, meaning "tail", and lophos, meaning "crest".[2] In Urolophus, the outer rims of the nostrils are not enlarged into lobes, but may form a small knob at the back.[3]

A fossil species, Urolophus crassicaudatus, has been found in Monte Bolca, northern Italy, in deposits dating back to the late Ypresian stage of the Eocene epoch (49 Ma);[4] however, Marramà et al. (2020) transferred this species to the genus Arechia.[5]
Species

There are currently 21 recognized species in this genus:

Urolophus aurantiacus J. P. Müller & Henle, 1841 (Sepia stingray)
†Urolophus bicuneatus Noetling, 1885
Urolophus bucculentus W. J. Macleay, 1884 (Sandyback stingaree)
Urolophus circularis McKay, 1966 (Circular stingaree)
Urolophus cruciatus Lacépède, 1804 (Crossback stingaree)
Urolophus deforgesi Séret & Last, 2003 (Chesterfield Island stingaree)
Urolophus expansus McCulloch, 1916 (Wide stingaree)
Urolophus flavomosaicus Last & M. F. Gomon, 1987 (Patchwork stingaree)
Urolophus gigas T. D. Scott, 1954 (Spotted stingaree)
Urolophus javanicus E. von Martens, 1864 (Java stingaree)
Urolophus kaianus Günther, 1880 (Kai stingaree)
Urolophus kapalensis Yearsley & Last, 2006 (Kapala stingaree)
Urolophus lobatus McKay, 1966 (Lobed stingaree)
Urolophus mitosis Last & M. F. Gomon, 1987 (Mitotic stingaree)
Urolophus neocaledoniensis Séret & Last, 2003 (New Caledonian stingaree)
Urolophus orarius Last & M. F. Gomon, 1987 (Coastal stingaree)
Urolophus papilio Séret & Last, 2003 (Butterfly stingaree)
Urolophus paucimaculatus J. M. Dixon, 1969 (Sparsely-spotted stingaree)
Urolophus piperatus Séret & Last, 2003 (Coral Sea stingaree)
Urolophus sufflavus Whitley, 1929 (Yellowback stingaree)
Urolophus viridis McCulloch, 1916 (Greenback stingaree)
Urolophus westraliensis Last & M. F. Gomon, 1987 (Brown stingaree)

See also

List of prehistoric cartilaginous fish

References

Müller, J. & Henle, F.G.J. (1837). "Gattungen der Haifische und Rochen nach einer von ihm mit Hrn. Henle unternommenen gemeinschaftlichen Arbeit über die Naturgeschichte der Knorpelfische". Bericht Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Berlin. 1837: 111–118.
Froese, Rainer and Pauly, Daniel, eds. (2015). Species of Urolophus in FishBase. February 2015 version.
Yearsley, G.K. & Last, P.R. (2006). "Urolophus kapalensis sp. nov., a new stingree (Myliobatiformes: Urolophidae) off eastern Australia". Zootaxa. 1176: 41–52. doi:10.11646/zootaxa.1176.1.4.
G. Carnevale, A. F. Bannikov, G. Marramá, J. C. Tyler, and R. Zorzin. 2014. The Pesciara-Monte Postale Fossil-Lagerstätte: 2. Fishes and other vertebrates. Rendiconti della Società Paleontologica Italiana 4:37-63.
Giuseppe Marramà; Giorgio Carnevale; Gavin J. P. Naylor; Jürgen Kriwet (2020). "Skeletal anatomy, phylogenetic relationships, and paleoecology of the Eocene urolophid stingray Arechia crassicaudata (Blainville, 1818) from Monte Postale (Bolca Lagerstätte, Italy)". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. 40 (4): e1803339. doi:10.1080/02724634.2020.1803339.