stingray x-ray
Posted By Alison Campbell On November 21, 2012 @ 4:23 pm In Environment and Ecology | 1 Comment
Another in the occasional series of rather lovely biological images: an x-ray of a stingray (Heliotrygon sp.)
[2]
(from NatGeo [2], via Pharyngula [3])
The genus name means ‘sun stingray’, a name that was given for the way that the cartilage fibres that support its body (like sharks, stingrays have a skeleton that’s based on cartilage [4], unlike the hard, ossified skeleton of (adult) humans).
Another cool thing about this image is that you can clearly see that this stingray is, in fact, stingless!
Article printed from BioBlog: http://sciblogs.co.nz/bioblog
URL to article: http://sciblogs.co.nz/bioblog/2012/11/21/stingray-x-ray/
URLs in this post:
[1] Tweet: https://twitter.com/share
[2] Image: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2011/03/pictures/110309-stingrays-new-species-amazon-science-animals-water/#/new-stingless-stingrays-x-ray_33017_600x450.jpg
[3] Pharyngula: http://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula
[4] cartilage: http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/97461/cartilage
Click here to print.