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As the largest ray and one of the largest fish in the sea, it’s no surprise that the Manta ray is big. However, do you know how big these devil fish really are? Seeing this comparison of the size of the manta ray might surprise you.
Rays come in many sizes. If you live on the coast or have visited an aquarium, you may be familiar with stingrays. Although related to the manta ray, their size doesn’t even come close to their large ocean cousins. After all, could you imagine riding on the back of a stingray? Probably not, but after reading this, you might just see yourself swimming ocean on the back of these gentle giants of the deep!
Manta Ray Maat
While scientists thought there was only one species of manta ray, they have now discovered that there are two: the giant manta ray and the reef manta ray.
At first glance, it may not seem like these two sea creatures have too many differences. In fact, the only thing that distinguishes between three minor differences: their color, their habitat and, you guessed it, their size.
The giant manta rays are the larger of the two species. They have a “wingspan” or disk width up to 30 feet! That’s about the size of your typical Routemaster double-decker bus, and only a few feet shorter than a telephone pole! If you were to compare their wingspan to some of the largest birds of prey, it would also last almost four bald eagles side by side with their wings expanded to the same width as the giant manta ray!
A typical adult giant ray can weigh up to 3600 pounds. While that’s only a fraction of some of the others biggest critters under the sea, it’s still about the same size as a car!
Reef Manta Ray Size
However, the reef manta ray is much smaller, although it is still one of the largest fish you find in the ocean. These beams are usually 9.8 to 11.5 feet wide, although they have been included with a width of up to 18 feet – that’s the same height as a giraffe!
Though much smaller in comparison, the reef manta ray is only a few hundred pounds lighter than their close cousin the giant oceanic manta ray. At 2,900 pounds, the reef ray weighs the same as a Toyota Corolla.
Mantas also have long tails. However, these super-sized sea creatures are complete gentle giants: their tails have no poisonous or dangerous barbs and they eat only plankton.
Both the giant oceanic manta rays and the reef manta rays have the largest brain-to-body weight ratio in the oceans. Talk about a super-sized genius!
Human vs Manta Ray Size Comparison
While we’ve already learned that the reef manta ray can be a round-trip for the giraffe (good luck finding enough oxygen tanks for that!), do you know how you’d compare?
If you want to recreate a scene from your favorite animated movie, you and 47 other adult passengers can fit on the back of the giant ocean manta ray. For children, this number rises to about 72!
As for their width, it would take nearly 6 adults to set foot to head to cover the area from the tip of one of their wings to the other. That number drops to about 4 for the reef ray. If you were simply swimming next to a manta ray, only one of its fins would usually be longer than you.
However, when it comes to their weight, the comparison may surprise you! If you could catch an oceanic manta ray and place it on a scale, it would take nearly 20 people to balance it. That’s double the population of McMullen, Alabama!
Great White Shark Vs. Manta Ray Maat
How does the largest predatory work? shark compare to the largest ray in the sea?
While the giant manta ray can compete with the great white ray in inches and feet, we’ll compare them next! – they are no match when it comes to weight. The great white shark easily outweighs the manta ray. In fact, at up to 5,000 pounds, it can reach sizes over 1,000 pounds larger than giant manta rays!
At its largest, the great white shark can grow to about 21 feet. This is about 3 feet taller than the reef ray (about the same length of a guitar) and only a few feet shorter than the largest of the giant oceanic manta ray.
A big difference between manta rays and great whites? The manta ray has no teeth. Instead, with a diet consisting entirely of plankton, they have small plates in their mouths to help filter the water. As result, with teeth that can grow almost 3 inches long, the great white wins this match by default.
bull shark vs. Manta Ray Maat
According to some animal professionals, the bull shark is one of the most dangerous sharks in the world. This is because, while attacks are rare
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these big sharks can travel upstream and are extremely territorial.
Despite being so dangerous, the bull shark is not the largest shark out there. In fact their measure is only slightly longer than a human, and with males measuring 7 feet in length, they are much smaller than most manta rays. Even females, which can grow up to 3 meters in height (slightly smaller than a elephant is tall), are on par with the reef manta ray and still several meters smaller than adult oceanic manta rays. However, it is much more common for females to be only a few centimeters longer than their male counterparts, which makes this comparison of manta ray size that much more interesting.
Bull sharks are even smaller when it comes to weight. An adult bull shark normally doesn’t get any bigger than about 300 pounds, the same weight as a refrigerator. This means it could take up to 12 bull sharks to weigh the same as a single giant oceanic manta ray!
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