Western Atlantic: North Carolina (summer) and Florida, USA and Bermuda to southern Brazil. Throughout Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean, including Antilles. Eastern Atlantic: Mauritania to Angola. Indo-West Pacific: Red Sea and South Africa to Hawaii, north to Japan, south to Australia. Eastern Pacific: Gulf of California to Puerto Pizarro, Peru and the Galapagos Islands. There may be more than one species of spotted Aetobatus.

An eagleray with a long snout, flat and rounded like a duck's bill, a thick head, and a pectoral disc with sharply curved, angular corners, and no caudal fin; jaws usually with single row of flat, chevron-shaped teeth. Each tooth a crescent-shaped plate joined into a band. Numerous white spots on black or bluish disc; white below. Long whiplike tail, with a long spine near the base, behind small dorsal fin. No spines on disk.

Commonly found in shallow inshore waters such as bays and coral reefs but may cross oceanic basins . Benthopelagic, found near land at 1-60 m.