Among the marine creatures, we find the baby manta rays whose photographs have gone around the world for their adorable appearance. With apparent eyes followed by plump cheeks, without upper legs but with tender lower extremities, they have earned the admiration of all nature lovers.
cute baby manta rays
Human empathy arises from what is known, from what is familiar to us, which is why some beings arouse a very strong sentimental connection in us, such as companion animals that we usually read through human expressions and behaviors. However, when it comes to marine beings, empathy can be lost a bit due to their great differences that exist, since they are cognitively unknown to us from what we are used to seeing.
But the human’s main ability is to find those chinks of familiarity wherever they lay their eyes, and that’s why baby manta ray photographs are so adorable. At first glance one can almost assure that their faces are in the lower part of the animals; eyes, mouth, even some colored cheeks and legs that give an even more tender touch to the image.
It is enough to admire the images for just a few seconds to feel the sweetness that they awaken in us. However, when you look at them more closely, one can realize that what we are looking at is not really their faces, although they are still beautiful.
What do we actually see?
The mouth itself is located in the lower part of these amazing animals and is equipped with two plates that are adapted for crushing crab, shrimp and mollusk shells. However, what appear to be their eyes are actually their nostrils, their counterpart in humans would be the nostrils. Where we see two chubby cheeks is actually their gill slits through which they breathe. And finally, the two pairs of legs are part of the pelvic fin that helps them move in the sand at the bottom of the sea.
The eyes, as is to be expected, are found in the upper part of the mantas, positioned on both sides of their body to have greater visibility of their space and thus be able to hunt their prey and stay safe from possible predators.
Although the anatomy of baby manta rays is a little different than what our eyes lead us to believe, they are still amazing animals that are related to sharks and belong to the order of cartilaginous fish. Learning about them is vital to support their conservation, since, like corals, they are threatened by habitat destruction.
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