X-ray of a stingray

This is a new genus with two new species, recently discovered in the Amazon.

They both look like pancakes with noses, as images of the species show. The two "pancake" species belong to the first new stingray genus found in the Amazon region in more than two decades... The team's work in the Upper Amazon confirmed the new genus, Heliotrygon, and the two new species, Heliotrygon gomesi and Heliotrygon rosai. Besides their pancake-like appearance, both rays are big, have slits on their bellies and a tiny spine on their tails.

Most of Lovejoy and Carvalho's specimens came from the Rio Nanay, near Iquitos, Peru. Their discovery brings the total number of neotropical stingray genera — from an area that also includes tropical Mexico, the West Indies and Central America — to four. Before their study, the last new genus of stingrays from the Amazon was described in 1987.

A conventional light photo is at Our Amazing Planet, along with a report of a newly discovered catfish species with coloration resembling a jaguar (underwhelming photo).

Via Neatorama.