The Atlantic stingray was described by French naturalist Charles Alexandre Lesueur as Trygon sabina, in an 1824 volume of the Journal of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia.

He based his account on a damaged male specimen collected by American naturalist Titian Ramsay Peale during the Academy's 1817 expedition to Florida.

[5] Since then, various authors have included this species in the obsolete genera Pastinaca, Dasybatus (or the variants Dasibatis and Dasybatis), and Amphotistius, all of which were eventually synonymized with the genus Dasyatis.

[6] A 2001 phylogenetic analysis by Lisa Rosenberger, based on morphology, found that the Atlantic stingray is one of the more basal members of its genus.

During the reproductive season, the teeth of mature males change to feature long, sharp cusps that curve towards the corners of the mouth, for gripping onto females during mating.

[3][8] The Atlantic stingray feeds mostly on benthic invertebrates such as bivalves, tube anemones, amphipods, crustaceans, and nereid worms, which they locate using their electroreceptive ampullae of Lorenzini.

However, the osmotic pressure between their internal fluids and external environment still causes water to diffuse into their bodies, and they must produce large quantities of dilute urine (at 10 times the rate of marine individuals) to compensate.

Large numbers of Atlantic stingrays are caught as bycatch in gillnets targeting flounder off North Carolina, but most are released alive.

They are also caught as bycatch in small numbers in recreational and commercial trout gillnets, shark drift nets, and nearshore trawls.

As there is no fishery targeting this species and bycatch mortality appears to be low, it was assessed as of Least Concern by the World Conservation Union.