the.com/manta ray
A flying carpet with the brain of a dolphin and the manners of a vacuum cleaner.
means A manta ray is a huge flat-bodied cartilaginous fish with wing-like pectoral fins that it flaps to 'fly' through open water while filter-feeding on plankton through its gaping mouth.
from 'Manta' comes from Spanish and Portuguese for 'blanket' or 'cloak' — early sailors along Latin American and Iberian coasts thought the animal's broad, dark, undulating body looked like a cloak draped over the water, and some accounts even feared it could wrap around and smother a swimmer like one. 'Ray' traces back through Old French 'raie' to Latin 'raia,' the general word for the flat-bodied skates and rays. So the name is literally 'cloak-fish' — a sailor's description long before science got hold of it.
- brain size
- Largest brain-to-body ratio of any fish
- mirror test
- One of few fish to recognize itself in mirrors
- feeding style
- Barrel-rolls through plankton clouds to eat efficiently
- no stinger
- Despite the name, lost its tail barb entirely