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Roughtail stingray

Dasyatis centroura

Information and species illustrations courtesy of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).

Species Information
Size Maximum size 210 cm disc width (making it one of the largest known stingrays); males mature at 130 to 150 cm disc width (claspers of an 84 cm disc width male barely extending beyond tip of pelvic fins); females mature at 140 to 160 cm disc width, and neonates at 34 to 37 cm disc width at birth.
Diagnostic characters Dorsal surface uniform dark brown to deep olive; ventral surface creamy white to yellowish. Dorsal surface with scattered enlarged tubercles and bucklers at about 30 cm disc width.
Habitat, biology, and fisheries Food consists of polychaetes, cephalopods, crustaceans, and ray-finned fishes. Litters range from 2 to 6 young.
Distribution Benthic along the inner continental shelf to 91 m, rarely to 274 m. Recorded from Georges Bank and Cape Cod to southern Florida, northern and northeastern Gulf of Mexico, Bahamas, and coast of South America from southeastern Brazil to Argentina (also eastern Atlantic and Mediterranean Sea).
Citations Carpenter, K.E. (ed) The living marine resources of the Western Central Atlantic. Volume 1: Introduction, molluscs, crustaceans, hagfishes, sharks, batoid fishes, and chimaeras. FAO Species Identification Guide for Fishery Purposes and American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists Special Publication No. 5. Rome, FAO. 2002. pp. 1-600. Carpenter, K.E. (ed) The living marine resources of the Western Central Atlantic. Volume 2: Bony fishes part 1 (Acipenseridae to Grammatidae). FAO Species Identification Guide for Fishery Purposes and American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists Special Publication No. 5. Rome, FAO. 2002. pp. 601-1374. Carpenter, K.E. (ed) The living marine resources of the Western Central Atlantic. Volume 3: Bony fishes part 2 (Opistognathidae to Molidae), sea turtles and marine mammals. FAO Species Identification Guide for Fishery Purposes and American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists Special Publication No. 5. Rome, FAO. 2002. pp. 1375-2127.