Local_Shark

Unidentified spotted whipray #1 (Himantura sp.) in Blacktip Reef

This is the first of the three unidentified Himanturas held at Baltimore’s National Aquarium. It’s labeled as an Australian but I am very skeptical.
@NAIB Volunteer okay, so, this is great info and I thank you very much for it - but H. uarnak and its sister species H. leoparda recently were separated into multiple species, and the spot pattern on this particular specimen is more consistent with one of the new ones, the fine-spotted leopard whipray (H. tutul). The full paper on that is here including some examples of pattern differences between the new species and the old. Do you happen to know when or if that inventory info was last updated?

I’m really sorry, I hate to get all granular like this but I’m just super curious and hoping to get the most up to date/accurate info. I really appreciate you taking the time to comment though.
 
Inventory is updated daily. They were collected as H. uarnak so I would assume they'll remain as such unless an aquarist decides to inquire further which seems unlikely.
 
@NAIB Volunteer That’s fair. I think based on the information I have, it could be very worthwhile for the aquarists to consider reevaluating that designation, but I of course understand the priority levels of their work. Thank you for looking into this.
 

Media information

Category
National Aquarium in Baltimore
Added by
Local_Shark
Date added
View count
285
Comment count
5
Rating
0.00 star(s) 0 ratings

Image metadata

Device
Apple iPhone 14 Pro Max
Aperture
ƒ/2.8
Focal length
9.0 mm
Exposure time
1/30 second(s)
ISO
1250
Flash
Off, did not fire
Filename
IMG_4576.jpeg
File size
3 MB
Date taken
Wed, 01 May 2024 11:47 AM
Dimensions
4032px x 3024px

Share this media

Back
Top