The common stingray (Dasyatis pastinaca) is a flat-bodied cartilaginous fish found throughout the Mediterranean Sea and the eastern Atlantic Ocean. It glides gracefully over sandy and muddy bottoms, often half-buried to ambush prey. Like other rays, it is a relative of sharks, and it shares the ocean with formidable predators such as the great white shark, though it occupies a very different niche near the seabed. Fishermen have known it for centuries, and its silhouette is a common sight gliding over shallow sand at dawn.