Rays evolved from sharks. These social animals live in seas all over the world, and even in some estuaries . Rays often congregate in huge groups of up to thousands of individuals, but other rays live alone. Many rays have spines on their tail which can poison other animals when stung. Some rays have long, whip-like tails, other species have short tails.
Some rays have a series of thorns on their body as a defense against predators.
SIZE Rays range in size from just a few inches to over 22 feet wide. Most rays are in-between these two extremes. Manta ray Manta birostris is the largest ray. Mantas eat microscopic plankton, small fish, and tiny crustaceans. They funnel the food into their mouth while they swim, using two large, flap-like cephalic lobes which extend forward from the eyes.