This is the first confirmed record of the genus Tetronarce in the northern Indian Ocean, shedding light on the poorly explored biodiversity of India’s deep-sea ecosystems, the ZSI further said. Electric rays, like their bigger sibling manta ray, are cartilaginous fish. They are slow moving bottom-dwellers that live on sandy or muddy seabeds.
These fish can generate electric shocks ranging from eight to 220 volts to stun preys and ward off threats.
A new species of electric ray fish has been discovered from the deep waters of southeastern Arabian Sea in the northern Indian Ocean, according to the Zoological Survey of India (ZSI).
The discovery was part of a research carried out by the Ministry of Earth Sciences’ Deep Ocean Mission project. It has been published in the international taxonomy journal Zootaxa. The newly discovered electric ray has several unique physical and genetic traits:
“Deep-sea marine habitats remain among the most difficult ecosystems to study,” the research team said in a statement.
