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The buoyancy and locomotory movements of electric rays

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 May 2009

B. L. Roberts
B. L. Roberts
Affiliation:
The Plymouth Laboratory
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Extract

The mean weight in sea water of specimens of the electric ray, Torpedo nobiliana Bonaarte, was only 0·4 % of the weight in air compared with 4·4 % in other bottom-living rays. T. nobiliana was so buoyant because it had large livers (up to 20% by weight) containing a lot (up to 70 %) of oil of low density (0·91 g/cm3) and because some of the body tissues were less dense than in other rays.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom , Volume 49 , Issue 3 , August 1969 , pp. 621 - 640
Copyright
Copyright © Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom 1969

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