California butterfly ray
Gymnura marmorata (Cooper, 1864)
Accepted species in Catalogue of Life’s 11 September 2026 base release. This preserves the source classification and available supporting data; it is not a completed species monograph.
Open encyclopedia reference
The California butterfly ray (Gymnura marmorata) is a species of ray in the family Gymnuridae. It is found in Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru, and the United States. Its natural habitats are shallow seas, subtidal aquatic beds, coral reefs, estuarine waters, intertidal marshes, and coastal saline lagoons.
Wikipedia contributors, California butterfly ray; see linked history · CC BY-SA 4.0 . Plain-text lead excerpt, at most 180 words; no infobox or later sections Retrieved 2026-10-05T10:59:30.727401+00:00. This reference remains separate from the taxonomic record.
Identity & source status
- Scientific name
- Gymnura marmorata (Cooper, 1864)
- Name authority
- (Cooper, 1864)
- Common name
- California butterfly ray
- Rank
- species
- Accepted status
- accepted
- Kingdom
- Animalia
- Phylum
- Chordata
- Class
- Elasmobranchii
- Order
- Myliobatiformes
- Family
- Gymnuridae
- Genus
- Gymnura
- Extinction status
- Not supplied by this source
Source habitat flags: Marine: yes · Freshwater: no · Terrestrial: no. These do not form a complete habitat description.
Classification family tree
Nested taxonomic groups from the source. This is not a direct-ancestor chain, a dated evolutionary tree or a phylogenetic reconstruction.
- domainEukaryota (Chatton, 1925) Whittaker & Margulis, 1978
- kingdomAnimalia
- phylumChordata
- subphylumVertebrata
- infraphylumGnathostomata
- parvphylumChondrichthyes
- classElasmobranchii
- subclassNeoselachii
- infraclassBatoidea
- orderMyliobatiformes
- familyGymnuridae Fowler, 1934
- genusGymnura van Hasselt, 1823
- speciesGymnura marmorata (Cooper, 1864)
Close classified relatives
These entries share the source’s genus, Gymnura. They are not necessarily the closest relatives established by molecular evidence.
| Species | Classification | Source status |
|---|---|---|
| Gymnura afuerae (Hildebrand, 1946) | GymnuridaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| spiny butterfly rayGymnura altavela (Linnaeus, 1758) | GymnuridaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| longsnout butterfly rayGymnura crebripunctata (Peters, 1869) | GymnuridaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Japanese butterflyrayGymnura japonica (Temminck & Schlegel, 1850) | GymnuridaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Gymnura lessae Yokota & Carvalho, 2017 | GymnuridaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Gymnura natalensis (Gilchrist & Thompson, 1911) | GymnuridaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Gymnura poecilura (Shaw, 1804) | GymnuridaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Gymnura tentaculata (Müller & Henle, 1841) | GymnuridaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Gymnura bimaculata (Norman, 1925) | GymnuridaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Gymnura crooki Fowler, 1934 | GymnuridaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Gymnura hirundo (Lowe, 1843) | GymnuridaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| smooth butterfly rayGymnura micrura (Bloch & Schneider, 1801) | GymnuridaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
Names & synonyms
Names explicitly linked to this accepted taxon in the source. Synonymy can change with revision.
| Recorded name | Source status |
|---|---|
| Pteroplatea marmorata Cooper, 1864 Cooper, 1864 | synonym |
Source literature & publication evidence
References attached to this source record, including nomenclatural citations where supplied. This is a selected bibliography; abbreviated citations remain in the source’s form.
- https://www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=271479 Source fields: Taxon.tsv dwc:namePublishedIn, Taxon.tsv dcterms:references
Origins, evidence & remaining research
Name authority and publication references document nomenclature where the source supplies it. They do not establish evolutionary origins or the earliest fossil occurrence.
Specimen-level evidence, morphology, ecological research, phylogenetic studies, a comprehensive bibliography and a located literary passage have not yet been compiled for this record. A suitable sourced image remains to be added.
Dataset citation & attribution
This exact taxon in ChecklistBank · Catalogue of Life 2026-09-11
Catalogue of Life 2026-09-11; dataset 316321; doi:10.48580/dgz5n. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ . Retrieved 5 October 2026.
Stable key: col:3HVQ3. Classification follows source parent identifiers. English common names may vary by region.