Mobulidae

The Mobulidae (manta rays and devilfishes) are a family of rays consisting mostly of large species living in the open ocean rather than on the sea bottom.

Taxonomy

The Mobulidae have been variously considered a subfamily of the Myliobatidae by some authors,<ref name="Nelson, 2006" /><ref name="Nelson et al., 2016" /> and a distinct family by others, but recent work favors the latter.<ref name="White & Last, 2016" /> Two genera have been traditionally recognized, Manta and Mobula, but recent DNA analysis shows that Mobula as traditionally recognized is paraphyletic to manta rays, making Manta a junior synonym of Mobula and Mobula the only extant genus of the family.<ref name="White et al., 2017" />

Fossil record

Several genera of fossil mobulids are known, including Archaeomanta, Burnhamia, Eomobula, and Paramobula.<ref name="Cappetta, 1987" />Template:Page needed<ref name="Herman et al., 1989"/><ref name="Cicimurri et al., 2009"/>

References

Template:Batoid-stub