New enquiry shows that giant manta rays , known only to consume plankton near the ocean control surface , are far more vulturous than we intend , swimming to uttermost depths to grab their prey .
Marine biologists have struggle to determine the diet of the olympian elephantine manta ray , an problematic creature that can mature up to 23 foot ( 7 meter ) across and weigh up to 3,000 pounds ( 1,350 kilogram ) . The ray is an endangered metal money and specimens are tough to arrive by owe to their broad dissemination across the sea ’s tropic regions .
“ The previous knowledge of giant manta ray diet was based on observation of feeding activeness on open piss zooplankton at well - have intercourse collecting sites , ” observe Queensland University life scientist and study cobalt - author Katherine Burgess in a assertion . Giant manta re , like whale sharks and baleen whale , can strain food particles from the pee using a specialized filtering mouth social structure .
To study more about the giant manta ray ’s dieting , Burgess ’ squad traveled to Isla de la Plata off the coast of Ecuador , a known collection area for the rays . Because giant manta rays are a protected species , the researchers were n’t able-bodied to snatch a specimen and peer into its breadbasket — a routine that ’s potentially pitiful and lethal . Instead , the investigator applied the “ you are what you use up ” rule to the problem .
“ We studied the giant manta rays ’ diet using biochemical tests , such as stable isotope analysis , ” said Burgess . “ These test can determine what animals have been eat by examining a patch of tissue paper from a muscle biopsy from a spare - swimming animal . ”
These skins tests showed that an norm of 27 pct of the giant manta ray ’s diet came from surface plankton , and 73 percent came from what scientists call “ mesopelagic ” sources — a fancy term for fish and other organisms that inhabit area of the ocean between 650 to 3,330 feet ( 200 to 1,000 meters ) below the surface .
So it turns out that shaft of light are n’t the gentle filter eating giant star we thought they were . In reality , they ’re inscrutable sea predators , gobbling up little to average size Pisces the Fishes — and at depths reaching a full kilometre beneath the ocean surface . The young finding are interesting , but what ’s ask now is genuine data-based evidence of rays feeding at these depths to settle the issue once and for all .
This Revelation of Saint John the Divine is a care to the scientists , who worry that the deep ocean is the “ next frontier for open piscary , ” and a potential threat to a beast that relies on this aquatic zona for most of its nutrient .
[ Royal Society Open Science ]
BiologyMarine biologyScience
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