A dark shape rises from the seabed like a moving rug, then lifts, its pectoral fins beating in slow arcs that turn a flat body into a flying wing. This is a manta ray, an animal that looks abundant and unbothered as it cruises through plankton clouds yet lives on a razor‑thin biological budget.Biologists classify mantas among the elasmobranchs, alongside sharks, but their life‑history parameters a...More