Butterfly ray

Butterfly rays Temporal range: Late Paleocene–present PreꞒ Ꞓ O S D C P T J K Pg N
Smooth butterfly ray (G. micrura)
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Chondrichthyes
Subclass:	Elasmobranchii
Division:	Batomorphi
Order:	Myliobatiformes
Family:	Gymnuridae Fowler, 1934
Genus:	Gymnura van Hasselt, 1823
Type species
Gymnura micrura Bloch & Schneider, 1801
Synonyms
AetoplateaValenciennes in J. P. Müller & Henle, 1841 Dasyatis Gray, 1851 PhanerocephalusGratzianov, 1906 PteroplateaJ. P. Müller & Henle, 1837

The butterfly rays are the rays forming the genus Gymnura and the family Gymnuridae. They are found in warm oceans worldwide, and occasionally in estuaries.

The body of butterfly rays is flattened and surrounded by an extremely broad disc formed by the pectoral fins, which merge in front of the head. They have a very short, thread-like, tail. ^[1] They are up to 4 m (13 ft) in width. ^[2]

McEachran et al. (1996) place the butterfly rays in the subfamily Gymnurinae of the family Dasyatidae, ^[3] but this article follows FishBase and ITIS in treating them as a family. ^{[4] [5]}

Species

There are currently 14 species in this genus (others are considered synonyms): ^{[2] [6] [7]}

Spiny butterfly ray (Gymnura altavela)

• Gymnura afuerae (Hildebrand, 1946)
• Gymnura altavela (Linnaeus, 1758) – Spiny butterfly ray
• Gymnura australis (E. P. Ramsay & Ogilby, 1886) – Australian butterfly ray
• Gymnura crebripunctata (W. K. H. Peters, 1869) – Longsnout butterfly ray
• Gymnura hirundo (Lowe, 1843) – Madeira butterfly ray
• Gymnura japonica (Temminck & Schlegel, 1850) – Japanese butterfly ray
• Gymnura lessae (Yokota & Carvalho, 2017) – Lessa's butterfly ray
• Gymnura marmorata (J. G. Cooper, 1864) – California butterfly ray
• Gymnura micrura (Bloch & J. G. Schneider, 1801) – Smooth butterfly ray
• Gymnura natalensis (Gilchrist & W. W. Thompson, 1911) – Backwater butterfly ray
• Gymnura poecilura (G. Shaw, 1804) – Longtail butterfly ray
• Gymnura sereti (Yokota & Carvalho, 2017) – Seret's butterfly ray
• Gymnura tentaculata (J. P. Müller & Henle, 1841) – Tentacled butterfly ray
• Gymnura zonura (Bleeker, 1852) – Zonetail butterfly ray

Synonyms

• Gymnura bimaculata(Norman, 1925) - synonym of Gymnura japonica
• Gymnura crookiFowler, 1934 - synonym of Gymnura poecilura

Fossil taxa

The following fossil gymnurid genera are known: ^[8]

• † Subathunura Kumar & Loyal, 1987 (Eocene of India) ^[9]
• † Jacquhermania Cappetta, 1982 (Middle to Late Eocene of Europe and eastern North America) ^{[10] [11] [12]}
• † Ouledia Cappetta, 1986 (Late Paleocene to Middle Eocene of North Africa, South America and South Asia) ^{[13] [14] [15]}
• † Pachygymnura Adnet et al., 2020 (Late Eocene of Egypt) ^[16]

The following fossil species of Gymnura are also known: ^[17]

• † Gymnura delpiti Cappetta, 1984 (Late Paleocene of Morocco)
• † Gymnura grootaerti Herman, 1984 (Early Eocene of Belgium) ^[18]
• †Gymnurahovestadti Herman, 1984 (Early Oligocene of Belgium) ^[18]
• † Gymnura laterialata Werner, 1989 (Cenomanian of Egypt)
• † Gymnura transita Averianov & Udovitshenko, 1993 (Early Eocene of Kyrgyzstan)

Diet

These species commonly prey on fish, crustaceans and mollusks.

References

1. Stevens, J. & Last, P.R. (1998). Paxton, J.R. & Eschmeyer, W.N. (eds.). Encyclopedia of Fishes. San Diego: Academic Press. p. 69. ISBN   0-12-547665-5.
2. Froese, Rainer; Pauly, Daniel (eds.). "Species in genus Gymnura". FishBase . March 2025 version.
3. McEachran JD, Dunn KA, Miyake T (1996). "Interrelationships of the batoid fishes (Chondrichthyes: Batoidea)". In Stiassny ML, Parenti LR, Johnson GD (eds.). Interrelationships of Fishes. Academic Press.
4. Froese, Rainer; Pauly, Daniel (eds.). "Family Gymnuridae". FishBase . January 2006 version.
5. "Gymnuridae". Integrated Taxonomic Information System . Retrieved 27 March 2006.
6. Last P, White W, de Carvalho M, Séret B, Stehmann M, Naylor G, eds. (2016). "Supplementary information". The Rays of the World project - an explanation of nomenclatural decisions. CSIRO. pp. 1–10. ISBN   978-0-643109131.
7. Yokota L, de Carvalho MR (2017). "Taxonomic and morphological revision of butterfly rays of Gymnura micrura (Bloch & Schneider, 1801) species complex, with the description of two new species (Myliobatiformes: Gymnuridae)" . Zootaxa. 4332 (1): 1–74. doi:10.11646/zootaxa.4332.1.1. PMID   29242452.
8. "Extinct - valid species | Species | Shark-References". shark-references.com. Retrieved 2026-01-16.
9. Kumar, Kishor; Loyal, R. S. (1987-12-01). "Eocene lchthyofauna from the Subathu Formation, Northwestern Himalaya India". Journal of the Palaeontological Society of India. 32 (1): 60–84. doi:10.1177/0971102319870107. ISSN   0552-9360.
10. Cappetta, Henri (1982-01-01). "Revision de Cestracion duponti Winkler, 1874 (Selachii, Batomorphii) du Bruxellien de Woluwe-Saint-Lambert (Eocene Moyen de Belgique)". Mededelingen van de Werkgroep voor Tertiaire en Kwartaire Geologie. 19 (4): 113–125. ISSN   0165-280X.
11. Ebersole, Jun A.; Cicimurri, David J.; Stringer, Gary L. (2019-12-06). "Taxonomy and biostratigraphy of the elasmobranchs and bony fishes (Chondrichthyes and Osteichthyes) of the lower-to-middle Eocene (Ypresian to Bartonian) Claiborne Group in Alabama, USA, including an analysis of otoliths". European Journal of Taxonomy (585). doi:10.5852/ejt.2019.585. ISSN   2118-9773.
12. Adnet, S.; Cappetta, H.; Elnahas, S.; Strougo, A. (2011-08-01). "A new Priabonian Chondrichthyans assemblage from the Western desert, Egypt: Correlation with the Fayum oasis". Journal of African Earth Sciences. 61 (1): 27–37. doi:10.1016/j.jafrearsci.2011.04.005. ISSN   1464-343X.
13. Cappetta, Henri (1986-01-01). "Un nouveau genre de Sélacien (Batomorphii, Myliobatiformes)de l'Yprésien des Ouled Abdoun, Maroc". Geobios. 19 (5): 635–640. doi:10.1016/S0016-6995(86)80059-6. ISSN   0016-6995.
14. Sambou, Bernard Siguendibo; Hautier, Lionel; Sarr, Raphael; Tabuce, Rodolphe; Lihoreau, Fabrice; Thiam, Moustapha; Lebrun, Renaud; Martin, Jeremy E.; Cappetta, Henri; Adnet, Sylvain (2020-07-01). "Contribution to the reappraisal of the mid Paleogene ichtyofauna of Western Africa with three new enigmatical elasmobranchs from Thanetian–Lutetian of Senegal". Annales de Paléontologie. 106 (3): 102400. doi:10.1016/j.annpal.2020.102400. ISSN   0753-3969.
15. Louterbach, M.; Roddaz, M.; Bailleul, J.; Antoine, Pierre Olivier; Adnet, Sylvain; Kim, J. H.; van Soelen, E.; Parra, F.; Gerard, J.; Calderon, Y.; Gagnaison, C.; Damste, J. S. Sinninghe; Baby, P. (2015). "Evidences for a Paleocene marine incursion in Southern Amazonia (Madre de Dios Sub-Andean Zone, Peru) (vol 414, pg 451, 2014)". Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology. 418: 386–386. doi:10.1016/j.palaeo.2014.11.023.
16. Adnet, Sylvain; Marivaux, Laurent; Cappetta, Henri; Charruault, Anne-Lise; Mabrouk, Essid El; Jiquel, Suzanne; Ammar, Hayet Khayati; Marandat, Bernard; Marzougui, Wissem; Merzeraud, Gilles; Temani, Rim; Monique, Vianey-Liaud; Tabuce, Rodolphe (2020). "Diversity and renewal of tropical elasmobranchs around the Middle Eocene Climatic Optimum (MECO) in North Africa: New data from the lagoonal deposits of Djebel el Kébar, Central Tunisia". Palaeontologia Electronica. 23 (2): a38. doi:10.26879/1085.
17. "Extinct - valid species | Species | Shark-References". shark-references.com. Retrieved 2026-01-16.
18. J. Cicimurri, David; A. Ebersole, Jun (2021-01-01). "New Paleogene elasmobranch (Chondrichthyes) records from the Gulf Coastal Plain of the United States, including a new species of Carcharhinus de Blainville, 1816". Cainozoic Research. 21 (2): 147–164. ISSN   1570-0399.