Marine life  /  Sharks & rays  /  Golden cownose ray
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Species entry

Golden cownose ray

Rhinoptera steindachneri

A golden-brown ray with a deeply notched snout that travels in schools of hundreds and rarely settles on the bottom.

Size
To 100 cm
Depth
0–20 m
Habitat
Schooling over sand in bays
Active
Day and night
Range
Eastern Pacific
Rarity
Galapagos Islands
3 stars of 5, a good week should turn one up
SP-01
golden cownose ray · full body · habitat
4:3 · min 2400px

To about 1 m across the disc, golden-brown above and pale below, with a deeply notched snout that gives the family its name and a pointed disc built for swimming rather than for lying still.

It travels in schools, sometimes of hundreds, and a school passing over a diver in the Galapagos is one of the sights of that archipelago. It rarely settles on the bottom. It has a venomous barb and no reason to use it on anybody.

Where to find:

LocationRarity Best monthsDepthHabitat
Galapagos Islands Ecuador editorial estimate
3 stars of 5, a good week should turn one up
Year-round
0–20 m
Schooling over sand in bays

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.

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