Smooth Butterfly Ray
By: Hastings Witt

Gymnura micrura

    The smooth butterfly ray, a.k.a. Gymnura micrura, lives in warm coastal waters and it may also enter estuaries and bays. Their domain is eukaryote, the kingdom is animalia. The phylum is chordata, and the class is chondrichthyes. The order is myliobatiformes, and the family is gymnuridae. The genus is Gymnura, and the species is micura. This species has bilateral symmetry which means that it can be divided into two parts that are mirror images of each  other. It has a grey complexion with vague spots on its back. It also has fins like wings and a long tail with a barb. Some adaptations that this organism possesses are its ability to blend in with its environment. It can do this because of its color, since this organism is grey it can easily blend in with the sand to look like a rock. This adaptation would be structural because the organism was born with this adaptation. One more adaptation is that its long wing like fins that propel this ray gracefully forward, this is also structural because the ray was born with big fins. Lastly this organism has a barb that can be stuck into predators when this ray is in danger. This is behavioral because this is an act that  the organism performs. One interesting fact about this organism is that its barb always grows back, it is like a fingernail. This organism’s prey include fish, crab, shrimp, prawns, and bivalves. Its predators are large fish and marine mammals. This organism is heterotrophic because it eats producers and other heterotrophs. Lastly this organism is cold blooded therefore it is ectothermic.