Growing to a width of 51 cm (20 in), this species is characterized by an angular, diamond-shaped pectoral fin disc with a short row of spear-like thorns along the midline of the back and few dermal denticles elsewhere.

Its tail bears a long fin fold along the bottom and a much shorter ridge along the top, both past the stinging spine.

Peter Last and William White described the dwarf black stingray in a 2008 Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) publication; it had previously been termed Dasyatis "sp.

[1] The dwarf black stingray has been found off northwestern Australia (north of Port Hedland), Indonesia (including Bali and Sabah in Borneo), and Malaysia.

Beyond the sting, the tail becomes thin and whip-like, bearing a long, low ventral fin fold and a much shorter dorsal ridge.

This species is a plain ochre to dark grayish brown above, becoming lighter towards the disc margins, on the thorns, and past the sting, and white below.

It is presumably aplacental viviparous, with the developing embryos sustained by maternally produced histotroph ("uterine milk") as in other stingrays.