This slow-reproducing species is caught by intensive bottom trawl and possibly other fisheries throughout its range, which likely cause high mortality regardless of whether it is discarded or utilised.

The finless sleeper ray was described as a new species and genus by English zoologist John Edward Gray in an 1831 issue of the scientific journal Zoological Miscellany.

His account was based on two specimens collected from Penang in Malaysia by General Thomas Hardwicke and presented to the British Museum.

[3] The pectoral fin disc of the finless sleeper ray is oval in shape; it is slightly wider than long in adults, and circular or longer than wide in juveniles.

[4][5][6][7] The pelvic fins are only slightly overlapped by the disc; each is long, wide, and roughly triangular, with trailing margins that are more concave in males than in females.

[6] The range of the finless sleeper ray extends from the eastern Andaman Sea, near southern border between Thailand and Myanmar, through the Strait of Malacca to Singapore, and northward to Vietnam.

[6] This bottom-dwelling species inhabits fine sediment habitat over the continental shelf in both inshore and offshore waters.

The organs consist of numerous fluid-filled pentagonal or hexagonal columns, which essentially act as batteries connected in parallel.

[9] Theodore Edward Cantor wrote in an 1850 account that this species was often infested by minute worms under the skin, which he termed "Cysteocercus temerae" and classified as "entozoa" (an obsolete grouping that included acanthocephalans, trematodes, cestodes, and nematodes).

Due to heavy fishing pressure within its range and its low reproductive rate, the finless sleeper ray has been assessed as Vulnerable by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).