Bowmouth Guitarfish

Bowmouth Guitarfish

The Bowmouth Guitarfish is a beautiful ray.  It LOOKS like a cross between a shark and a ray  but it is a ray that looks a lot like a shark.  I photographed one from the Loveland Living Planet Aquarium in Utah.  It is in the big tank with sharks and sea turtles.  I included a Unicornfish in the drawing because there are Unicornfish in the tank as well.  The drawing includes sea worms and an electric eel.

Both sharks and rays are called cartilage  fish or cartilaginous fish because instead of hard bones they have bones made up of cartilage.  This class of fish have hard teeth so they are found often.  The class is called Class:  Condrichthyes.  The Bowmouth Guitarfish has very unique teeth it uses for crushing shells of shellfish.  It also eats small fish.

Jaw from a Bowmouth Guitarfish
Notice the amazing patter of the teeth.

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Sea Turtle at Loveland Living Planet Aquarium 

The little boy is my grandson.