Olive’s wet beast fact: these absolutely shaped creatures are also known as the Shark Ray. Are they a shark or a ray? Who fuckin knows! (They are rays, not sharks)
I heard that sharks and rays are super closely related. Are skates an approximate bridging “group” between them? Or are they outside of both groups
They are all really closely related- there in all the same class known as Chondrichthyes, or cartilaginous fish. Sharks evolved first, approximately 350 million years ago during the Carboniferous period. Skates and ray came around at approximately the same time as each other 150 million years ago during the Jurassic period.
So skates aren't really a "bridging group", they're actually most closely related to rays!
In this study, 122 devil rays individuals were observed circling in a "courtship vortex"—the first time this behavior has ever been seen during mating. For five hours, this vortex of animals swirled as courtship groups joined and exited the formation.
Their most noticeable feature is their elongated rostrum, a structure formed from cartilage which has several rostral teeth along the edges. The rostrum is used for many things, like locating prey through electroreception, to slash and stun prey animals in both substrate and the water column, and even for self defence.
Myxiniformes. This order is known as hagfish, jawless fish which release slime from their skin to protect themselves from predators. They are the only known living species to have a skull but no vertebral column.
Myliobatiformes. This order of batoids includes stingrays and manta rays.