![]() Instead, these signals are thought to play an important role in communicative behavior, such as during reproduction and territoriality. It discharges long-lasting electrical signals thought to be too weak for predatory or defensive purposes. In skates, the electric organ is also a paired structure, but it is embedded within the lateral musculature of the tail on either side of the vertebral column. It is very strong, and is used both offensively to capture prey and defensively to discourage predators. The paired electric organ of electric rays occupies an extensive portion of the pectoral fin. ![]() Live winter skate (Leucoraja ocellata), little skate (Leucoraja erinacea), and smooth skate (Malacoraja senta) onboard ship in a holding pen.Īmong cartilaginous fishes, electric organs are found only in skates and electric rays. Additionally, the sharks and rays themselves - like all living creatures - produce an electrical field during muscle contractions as such, the electric field they induce while swimming in the magnetic field of the earth may enable them to sense their magnetic heading. It has thus been speculated that sharks and rays may use their Ampullae of Lorenzini to orient to the electric fields of oceanic currents. Oceanic currents moving in the magnetic field of the Earth produce electric fields that are of the same order of magnitude as the electric fields that sharks and rays are capable of sensing. Finally, the ampullae may also play an important role in intraspecific communication, particularly among skates and rays, by picking up the weak electrical signals generated by the electric organs of certain species and whose function is otherwise unknown. In addition, these structures make it possible for benthic feeders - such as skates - to find prey buried in the sand, even in the absence of visual or olfactory cues. The ampullae of Lorenzini allow sharks, skates, and rays to detect weak electic fields emitted by fish in distress, and may also respond to mechanical stimuli. One of the most interesting sensory adaptations possessed by all elasmobranchs is a complex of small, subcutaneous vesicles located around the head collectively referred to as the ampullae of Lorenzini.Įach ampullae is visible on the surface of the skin as a small pore, with each pore connecting to a long, jelly-filled canal in which a bundle of sensory cells innervated by nerve fibers is located. ![]() Unlike teleosts (or bony fishes), which tend to rely heavily on vision, skates and rays have a number of extremely well-developed sensory systems which allow them locate prey and navigate about their environments very efficiently. Ampullae of Lorenzini of an immature female winter skate (Leucoraja ocellata), visible on the surface of the skin as small black pores.
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