Mobulidae

The Mobulidae (manta rays and devilfishes) are a family of rays consisting mostly of large species living in the open ocean rather than on the sea bottom.

Mobulidae Temporal range: 100.5–0 Ma PreꞒ Ꞓ O S D C P T J K Pg N Late Cretaceous to Recent
Mobula birostris at Hin Daeng, Thailand
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Chondrichthyes
Subclass:	Elasmobranchii
Division:	Batomorphi
Order:	Myliobatiformes
Family:	Mobulidae Gill, 1893[1]
Genera
Mobula Manta (sometimes considered to be a synonym of Mobula)

Taxonomy

The Mobulidae have been variously considered a subfamily of the Myliobatidae by some authors,^[2][3] and a distinct family by others, but recent work favors the latter.^[4] Two genera have been traditionally recognized, Manta and Mobula, but recent DNA analysis shows that Mobula as traditionally recognized is paraphyletic to manta rays, making Manta a junior synonym of Mobula and Mobula the only extant genus of the family.^[5]

Fossil record

Several genera of fossil mobulids are known, including Archaeomanta, Burnhamia, Eomobula, and Paramobula.^{[6][page needed][7][8]}