Safari Incredible Creatures stingray no 100507 from 2020

Seing this model in the catalogue, it looks like a flat, grey plastic frying pan, - absolutely nothing special  

But there aren't really very many models of ordinary, grey stingrays, so I had to get this feller.

And as often with Safari, I got pleasntly surprised, because it is full of great details, and at first I was sure it is a hort tailed stingray  
However, there probably are too many details on this model : what kind of stingray has "wings" with that kind of stripes ?    
The water is quite muddy, but this is the best video I could find with good close-ups of the short-tailed stingray:


Perhaps somebody can tell me, - I have not been able to find a family for this poor fish  

Well, never mind, - I like it, it is full of weird charm, and somebody did a lot of work to make him look great

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Delightful undulating fins, such as many stingrays move
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And the strange way the eyes are placed...
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The eyes should perhaps have been more "goat-like".
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Steve erving was killed by such a tail  
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Perfect and interesting "flaps" at the base of the tail
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With the buespotted ribbontail ray from the same series.
He is also a stingray, but this models has nothing to sting with
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It reminds me of the AAA "devil fishes". A lovely large ray!

It is endeed not easy to make such creature, to look as good sculpted, detailed model.
And this one look nice :)
I am sure on hands, the impression is even better :)
Thank you for this nice walkaround, with wonderful photos Susanne

That's a very beautiful model, Susanne! I really like it and figures like these are what I expect from this series, not exactly piglets or ducklings. Safari Ltd suggests it to be a common stingray but they only provide the genus name Dasyatis. Short-tailed stingrays also belonged to this genus until recently. These stingrays, from the family Dasyatidae, also known as whiptail stingrays, are all very similar and object of controversy when the goal is to classify them. Thanks for these great pictures and video, Safari seems on a ray mode.

it has been proposed as represting Pastinachus sephen

Very very beautiful, but really huge

Marvellous figure, lovely walkaround too

Thankyou, guys and Paige

bmathison1972 wrote:

it has been proposed as represting Pastinachus sephen

Hmmmm, as as far as I can see on the net, the cow tail ray has two "needles", and a much longer tail and brush on the end of the tail

bmathison1972 wrote:

it has been proposed as represting Pastinachus sephen

Safari refers to it as the Common Stingray Dasyatis pastinaca which seems about right.

sbell wrote:

bmathison1972 wrote:

it has been proposed as represting Pastinachus sephen

Safari refers to it as the Common Stingray Dasyatis pastinaca which seems about right.

Thanks Sean! That is new; Safari had not earlier identified it to the genus level. But if you go to the Safari website, they list it specifically as genus Dasyatis now.
I will update my database, thanks!

bmathison1972 wrote:

sbell wrote:

bmathison1972 wrote:

it has been proposed as represting Pastinachus sephen

Safari refers to it as the Common Stingray Dasyatis pastinaca which seems about right.

Thanks Sean! That is new; Safari had not earlier identified it to the genus level. But if you go to the Safari website, they list it specifically as genus Dasyatis now.
I will update my database, thanks!

Not sure when they changed it, the genus was on there when I got it

So now my ray has a name

I don't care what Safari has labelled it, it is not Dasyatis pastinaca.  I have seen real, live Dasyatis pastinaca, and this figure is NOT Dasyatis pastinaca.  First and foremost, Dasyatis pastinaca lacks any kind of comb at the end of the tail.  It is a standard whiptail ray.  Further, D. pastinaca's barb is close to the base of the tail, it's olive, tan, or reddish in color (rather sandy), and it has a pretty strongly diamond-shaped disc with a pointed snout.

Compare that to Pastinachus sephen, which has a distinct comb at the end of its tail, carries its barb in front of the comb, well off the base of the tail, has a broadly rounded snout, thick pectoral fins often tipped in black (as is the comb on its tail), and is overall grayish to black in color.

The figure does not represent Dasyatis pastinaca, regardless of what it is labelled.  I may be wrong about it being Pastinachus sephen, but that at least matches the figure I have in my hand much more closely than any Dasyatis species.

sphyrna18 wrote:

I don't care what Safari has labelled it, it is not Dasyatis pastinaca.  I have seen real, live Dasyatis pastinaca, and this figure is NOT Dasyatis pastinaca.  First and foremost, Dasyatis pastinaca lacks any kind of comb at the end of the tail.  It is a standard whiptail ray.  Further, D. pastinaca's barb is close to the base of the tail, it's olive, tan, or reddish in color (rather sandy), and it has a pretty strongly diamond-shaped disc with a pointed snout.

Compare that to Pastinachus sephen, which has a distinct comb at the end of its tail, carries its barb in front of the comb, well off the base of the tail, has a broadly rounded snout, thick pectoral fins often tipped in black (as is the comb on its tail), and is overall grayish to black in color.

The figure does not represent Dasyatis pastinaca, regardless of what it is labelled.  I may be wrong about it being Pastinachus sephen, but that at least matches the figure I have in my hand much more closely than any Dasyatis species.

I had trouble researching this figure and there seems to be conflicting information online. What I initially read, is that D. pastinaca does have tail folds on the dorsal and ventral surfaces, while P. sephen only has one on the ventral side.
Comparing internet photos doesn't help, and I wouldn't be surprised if specimens in zoos and aquaria are misidentified, as is not uncommon with morphologically-similar species.

I need to continue looking for peer reviewed papers on the subject; Chad do you have any?

To my knowledge, there aren't any peer reviewed papers that specifically address these two species, as their distribution is very different (there may be some overlap in distribution around South Africa, but I haven't seen any information about how to distinguish between the species).  

D pastinaca does have tail folds on the dorsal and ventral surfaces, but as far as I know, they are mostly unremarkable and would not warrant inclusion in a figure of this size.  If they were included, they should stretch the length of the tail post barb and basically give the tail a keeled appearance.  Further, the barb should be closer to the base for D. pastinaca.  I had actually assumed the way the tail folds were sculpted was a mistake, given I don't know of any stingray that looks exactly like the figure. The length of the tail on both species is relatively short, so that fits the figure for both, and it is not unusual for ray figures to have criminally short tails anyway.  So I looked at the body.  To me, the shape of the disc on the figure was not as diamond shaped as it should be for D. pastinaca, and the snout does not protrude as much as it should.  P. sephen, IMO, has a much more obtuse snout.  Further, P. sephen has remarkably thick pectoral fins, which this figure also features.

I think the simple fact that the tail folds can be clearly seen on the figure rules out any species that does not have 1,000's of images online that show the same feature.  Whether or not the figure is accurate in how those folds are sculpted (dorsally AND ventrally), I think the intent is clear to show the folds.  While, to me, that rules out D. pastinaca, there are Dasyatis species that more closely resemble this figure.  For instance, Dasyatis brevis.  I only ruled out D. brevis because I thought that it was a little too broadly rounded compared to the figure, but I don't really have enough information about D. brevis to make any kind of informed identification.  However, if Safari is calling this figure Dasyatis, and everyone wants to stick with that, then I would go with Dasyatis brevis.

I just went to Safari's website and now they only state the genus (they must have edited it). There is a comment about the common stingray but the way it's written it doesn't imply that is what they intended it to be.

This paper might help but not sure how to access it: [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

I'm going to say its the shorttail stingray cuz of the size of the figure and the fact there's not much difference between either