A broad flap of skin under the tail, and a heavy ray that lies buried on open sand.
Disc to about 180 cm across, grey-brown above and pale below, thick-bodied, with a whip tail carrying a broad flap of skin along its underside behind the sting — the cowtail — which is the identifying feature. It has one or two long venomous spines near the tail base.
It lies buried in sand and silt with only the eyes and spiracles showing, and feeds on worms, crustaceans and molluscs dug out of the substrate. It is one of the larger animals a muck diver meets on open sand and is usually found by the outline of a buried disc rather than by seeing the ray itself. It leaves in a cloud of sediment if approached from above. Recorded from about 3 to 35 m.
Ratings are per location: 1 means found on most dives that look for it, 5 means a handful of records. Where enough dives have been logged the figure is calculated from them; otherwise it is an editorial estimate, and says so. We publish habitat and destination, not the dive site.