Table of Contents
The cow-nosed rays, like the whip-tailed rays, have a very long tail armed with one or more poisonous sawedged spines; a very flat broad disc; and pelvic fins with convex outer margins. But their pectoral fins are interrupted on each side of the head, so that the forward portions form a separate two-lobed fin extending forward from the lower side in front of the mouth and nostrils; their crowns are high-domed; their eyes and spiracles are on the sides of the head instead of on its upper surface; and they have a small dorsal fin on the upper side of the tail in front of the tail spines. Their teeth have the form of large, flat grinding plates, fitting close together in mosaic arrangement; and there are only 7 to 9 series of them in each jaw.