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Notice how this ray swims, by flapping its wings and gliding along just over the sand.
注意这条鳐鱼是如何游动的，它拍动双翼，在沙地上滑行。
By comparison, meet the Little Skate, common in the waters of New England.
来比较一下，认识一下小鳐鱼，它在新英格兰地区的水域中很常见。
It looks just like a miniature stingray, but it's a skate because it has no stinger.
它看起来就像一条迷你黄貂鱼，但它是鳐鱼，因为它没有刺。
Although it can swim by flapping its wings, it often scoots along the bottom by repeatedly pushing off the bottom with its pelvic fins.
虽然它可以通过拍打双翼来游泳，但它经常反复用腹鳍推动海底来快速移动。
Kind of like riding a skateboard.
有点像滑板。
This type of locomotion has been termed "punting."
这种移动方式称为“撑动前行”。
Most Batoids have pelvic fins like this, but only a few use them to move in this way.
大多数蝙蝠状鱼都有这样的腹鳍，但只有少数几种采用这种方式移动。
And if you think that's weird, check out this strange looking ray!
如果你觉得这很怪异，那看看这条奇怪的鳐鱼吧！
The Torpedo Ray doesn't look much different from any other ray when it's lying on the bottom.
当电鳐待在海底时，它看起来和其他鳐鱼没什么差别。
But when it gets up to swim...it has a vertical tail fin like a shark!
但当它开始游泳时，它有一个像鲨鱼一样的垂直尾鳍！
Instead of flapping its wing-like pectoral fins, it swishes its tail back and forth to swim!
它不是拍打翼状的胸鳍，而是通过来回摆动尾巴游泳！
And that's not even the weirdest thing about this unique ray.
这甚至不是这条独特的鳐鱼最奇怪的地方。
The Torpedo Ray is also known as the Electric Ray because it can produce 50 volts of electricity to shock its prey!
电鳐也称为电魟，因为它能产生50伏的电流来电击猎物！
Most rays can't electrocute their dinner into submission.
大多数鳐鱼无法用电把晚餐制服。
The Spotted Eagle Ray spends a lot of time soaring through the water like the Eagle for which it's named.
斑点鹰魟很多时间就像它的名字一样，在水中遨游。
But look closely.
但仔细看看。
It has a shovel-shaped face for digging around in the sea floor.
它有一个铲形的脸，可以在海底挖掘。
It's a bottom-feeder like the stingray.
它像黄貂鱼一样是一种在海底进食的动物。
And look here!
看这儿！
Not just one but three stingers!
不是一根，而是三根刺！
Another ray that likes to swim up off the bottom: the manta ray.
另一种喜欢从海底游上来的鱼是蝠鲼。
If ever there was an animal that looked like a flying carpet, this is it.
如果有一种动物看起来像飞毯，那就是它了。
Unlike most other rays, this animal eats plankton.
与其它大多数鳐鱼不同，这种动物以浮游生物为食。
It swims through the water with its mouth wide open, allowing the tiny plankton to go into its mouth and get stuck on comb-like filters on its gills.
它张大嘴巴在海里游动，让微小的浮游生物进到它的嘴里，在鳃上被梳状过滤器卡住。
Then it swallows them down.
然后把它们吞下去。
Mantas don't have spines for protection.
蝠魟没有刺可以保护自己。
They rely partly on their large size to deter predators.
它们部分地依靠巨大的体型来阻止捕食者。
But they can jump pretty far out of the water to escape predators too!
但它们也能跳离水面很远以躲避捕食者！
Sometimes that doesn't help.
有时候这没用。
This manta has a bite cleanly taken out of it by a shark!
能够清晰地看到，这只蝠魟曾被鲨鱼咬过一口！
Ouch, that's gotta hurt.
哎哟，真疼。
It probably happened when this ray was much smaller.
这可能是在这条鳐鱼很小的时候发生的。
Manta rays are ovoviviparous, meaning that they produce eggs that hatch internally.
蝠鲼是卵生的，这意味着它们产生的卵在体内孵化。
Baby manta rays emerge from their mother alive and swimming.
小蝠鲼从母亲体内活着游出来。
All rays use this reproductive strategy.
所有的鳐鱼都使用这种繁殖策略。
However skates, like the Little Skate, are oviparous—they lay eggs.
然而，鳐鱼像小鳐鱼一样是卵生的，他们产卵。
This is the egg of a skate.
这是鳐鱼的卵。
The mother produced 5 to 15 of them.
母亲产了5到15只。
They are laid on the sand and given no parental protection.
它们躺在沙底，没有父母的保护。
Inside the egg, a baby skate develops, for up to a year, dependent on water temperature.
在卵里，一只婴儿鳐会根据水温的变化成长一年。
Finally, the day comes when the baby skate slowly forces its way out of the egg case and swims away.
最后，婴儿鳐会慢慢地从卵壳里滑出来，游走了。
Even a newborn knows to camouflage itself quickly to avoid predators.
即使是新生儿也知道要迅速伪装自己，躲避捕食者。
Skates and rays are a diverse group.
扁体鳐和鳐鱼是不同的群体。
Not all Batoids look like the typical ray.
不是所有蝙蝠状鱼都看起来像典型的鳐鱼。
This animal is called a Sawshark or sawfish.
这种动物叫锯鲨或锯魟。
It looks more like a shark, but it is a ray.
它看起来更像鲨鱼，但它是一条鳐鱼。
Don't believe me?
不相信我吗？
Where are its gill slits?
它的鳃裂在哪里？
A shark's gills would be here, but they're underneath.
鲨鱼的鳃在这里，但它们的在下面。
And look, its breathing through large spiracles.
看，它呼吸是通过巨大的呼吸孔。
The Sawfish uses its saw to hunt by swinging it backs and forth in the sand, impaling soft-bodied creatures on the teeth.
锯鲨用它的锯在沙子里来回摆动，用牙齿刺穿身体柔软的生物来捕猎。
So skates and rays are a diverse group of animals with many adaptations to survive.
因此，扁体鳐和鳐鱼是一个具有多种适应能力的动物群体。
And while they are not as well-known as their cousins the sharks, they're every bit as fascinating.
虽然不像它们的表亲鲨鱼那样出名，但它们一样非常迷人。
