Talk:Story and History/@comment-27.244.14.88-20130819154517

"There were some failed experiments like the Desert Skates found in the new Grineer Settlement tileset who appear to descend from Earth's manta rays."

"referring to the creation of the Sand Skate (manta ray) enemies that appear in the Grineer settlement tileset."

I keep seeing "Desert Skates = Manta Rays" almost every time they're brought up in a forum or something. I'd like to point out that they are not based on / descended from manta rays. The desert skates seem much more closely related to stingrays, but they're not based on those, either (other than the appearance of the tail).

As the name and body structures suggest, the Desert Skates of Phobos are, in fact, based on / descended from the Skates of present-day Earth.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skate

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/c5/Atlantoraja_platana.jpg/800px-Atlantoraja_platana.jpg

Unless "manta ray" or "sting ray" or something of the sort was specifically mentioned somewhere by the devs, I'm fairly certain that this is the case.