The pelagic stingray has a worldwide distribution in waters warmer than 19 °C (66 °F), and migrates seasonally to spend the summer closer to the continental shelf and at higher latitudes.

As a consequence of its midwater habits, its swimming style has evolved to feature more of a flapping motion of the pectoral fins, as opposed to the disc margin undulations used by other, bottom-dwelling stingrays.

It is an active hunter, using its pectoral fins to trap and move food to its mouth, and has been known to take advantage of seasonal feeding opportunities such as spawning squid.

Rarely encountered except by fishery workers, the pelagic stingray can inflict a severe, even fatal wound with its tail spine.

Along with the pelagic stingray's global distribution and prolific life history, this has led the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) to assess it as of Least Concern.

The pelagic stingray was originally described by French naturalist Charles Lucien Bonaparte in the 1832 third volume of Iconografia della fauna italica per le quattro classi degli animali vertebrati.

[4] Later authors elevated Pteroplatytrygon to the rank of full genus, though some taxonomists dispute whether this species is distinct enough to warrant separation from Dasyatis.

[3][5] Taeniura lymma Neotrygon kuhlii Pteroplatytrygon violacea Pastinachus sephen Dasyatis + Indo-Pacific Himantura Lisa Rosenberger's 2001 phylogenetic analysis, based on morphology, found that the pelagic stingray is one of the more basal members of its family, being the sister taxon to a clade that contains Pastinachus, Dasyatis, and Indo-Pacific Himantura species.

In the western Atlantic, it has been reported from the Grand Banks of Newfoundland to North Carolina, the northern Gulf of Mexico, and the Lesser Antilles, Brazil and Uruguay.

In the eastern Atlantic, this species has been recorded from the North Sea to Madeira, including the Mediterranean, as well as around Cape Verde, in the Gulf of Guinea and off South Africa.

In the Pacific, this species apparently spends the winter in oceanic waters near the equator and move into higher latitudes and towards the coast in spring.

While most stingrays propel themselves by undulating their disc margins, this species swims by oscillating (flapping) its pectoral fins in a manner approaching the "underwater flying" employed by eagle rays.

[14] Known parasites of this species include the tapeworms Acanthobothrium benedeni, A. crassicolle, and A. filicolle, Rhinebothrium baeri and R. palombii,[25][26] and Tetragonocephalum uarnak,[27] and the monogenean Entobdella diadema.

[10] Off Brazil, this species follows groups of Atlantic cutlassfish (Trichiurus lepturus) towards the coast in January and February, with both predators seeking small schooling fishes.

[3] Like other stingrays, the pelagic stingray is aplacental viviparous: the developing embryos are at first nourished by yolk, which is later supplanted by histotroph ("uterine milk", containing proteins, lipids, and mucus); the mother delivers the histotroph through numerous thread-like extensions of the uterine epithelium called "trophonemata", which feed into the enlarged spiracles of the embryo.

[24][29] Females are capable of storing sperm internally for more than a year, allowing them to wait for favorable environmental conditions in which to gestate their young.

[3][10] In the Pacific, females give birth in winter from November to March in a nursery area near Central America, prior to their northward migration.

[31] The pelagic stingray is not aggressive and rarely encountered because of its habitat preferences, but its very long tail spine demands extreme caution be exercised in handling it.

[1][6] Surveys in the Pacific suggest that pelagic stingray numbers have increased since the 1950s, possibly due to commercial fisheries depleting the dominant predators in the ecosystem, such as sharks and tuna.

[33] The lack of population declines, coupled with its wide distribution and high reproductive rate, has led the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) to list this species under Least Concern.