Sting rays and the science behind them

Sting rays have always been a interesting subject to me as I have only seen them in tanks and I get so caught up in looking at them I usually don't look at the info. Sting rays are flattened fish that are somewhat related to sharks. There have been fossils that date back to 150 million years ago! With stingrays there are not 1 or 2 species but there is about 300 different species in 18 families characterized. When you hear the word "ray" and talking about animals usually it is not the stingray as there are butterfly rays, electric rays, round rays, manta rays, guitarfish, and sawfish. When it comes to production they are live bearing animals. Stingrays are often lead to believe that they are dangerous to humans which they are they have venom tails but are often not lethal. Electric rays wrap their tail around and use electric discharge beach-goers often step on these animals and lead to a painful wound yet no deaths have been reported from a Electric ray. The biggest ray is the manta ray (picture below) and the smallest ray is the short-nose electric ray which is about 4 inches. Rays might be usually called stingrays as they are the most common to see at a aquarium or when fishing but truth is that there are a ton that just don't bite!

Source of Information
http://www.flmnh.ufl.edu/fish/education/questions/raybasics.html#stingrays